


It's Where My Demons Hide

by TheAutotheist



Series: The Rubble or Our Sins [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Not Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, split personality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-04 08:05:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4130556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAutotheist/pseuds/TheAutotheist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has been four years since Bucky escaped from Hydra, with help from the Winter Soldier, and found Steve's frozen body. Now SHIELD needs their help with an extraterrestrial threat. So they have to put their mission on hold while dealing with a snarky inventor, a volatile scientist, a pair of spies, a literal god, and a whole alien army lead by a psychopath.</p><p>In other words, this is a retelling of The Avengers, with Bucky/The Winter Soldier along for the ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So several people (meaning three) asked for a sequel to my other fic, "Looking for Heaven Found the Devil in Me." I never intended to do one, but the idea wouldn't leave me alone. So here it is. Since this is a direct sequel to that other fic, it probably won't make much sense if you don't read the first story in the series.

“Something bad is going on at SHIELD,” Bucky said calmly as he ducked under Steve’s punch and moved to swipe his legs out from under him.

Steve rolled back out of the way of the attack, and then swung his knee at Bucky. Bucky blocked with his metal arm and pushed Steve back, which gave Steve enough room to smile at him. “You’ve been spying on SHIELD’s communications again.”

Bucky took a running start and swiped at him with one of his training knives. That wasn’t to say it was plastic or rubber. It was a real knife, but it was dull. “They invited us. You don’t invite a spy in unless you’re prepared to give up your secrets.”

“That sounds like a well-practiced excuse.” Steve darted to the side around the knife and caught Bucky’s wrist on the next slash. One of Bucky’s, or more accurately, the Winter Soldier’s best tricks was being ambidextrous with knife attacks. He particularly excelled at switching a knife quickly between hands. So when Steve caught one wrist, Bucky dropped the knife into his other hand and actually managed to nick Steve when he swiped at his throat.

He smirked like he had won, but Steve just used the forward lunge to roll back onto his back and kick Bucky over his head. Bucky was able to take the toss and tuck and roll, but by the time he came up, Steve was on him, and managed to pin him to the mat with his forearm against his throat. Bucky struggled for a moment and then rolled his eyes.

“Fine, you win.” Bucky looked like a pouting child when he lost, which just made Steve smile.

He leaned back on his knees and then stood up. He held out his hand and helped Bucky up. “So what kind of bad thing is going on at SHIELD?”

“That I don’t know.” Bucky collected the training knives that had scattered around the gym while they sparred. “But it’s something big. There was a call for all hands on deck. Though they wouldn’t say why over the radio. Whatever it is, though, it has them panicking.”

“All hands on deck. Wonder if that includes us. So far all we’ve done is use SHIELD’s resources to find more Hydra factories.”

“Guess we’ll find out.” Bucky tossed one of the knives and it landed squarely between two pegs on a wooden rack across the room. In the six months since Fury had asked them to join, it was true all they did was continue their mission as usual. They were invited into the SHIELD New York headquarters once, but Bucky kept expecting Hydra agents around every corner. Fury assured them they had sufficiently flushed out every double agent working at SHIELD, but even in four years, Bucky doubted they had found everyone. So far, rather than give them any missions, SHIELD provided them with the resources they needed to keep running their own missions, including new uniforms.

Bucky, and especially the Winter Soldier, would not let them alter his uniform. It was already designed for maximum performance. But it had some serious wear and tear. So they either fixed it up, or created a new one that was an exact replica. Bucky was not a hundred percent sure which.

Steve, on the other hand, was done with the stars and stripes. And his uniform had definitely seen better days. But it was created to endure the hardships of the war, so it had managed to last. But it definitely wasn’t ideal for covert missions. So the new uniform was a dark, dark blue, with white stripes across the chest and a single, smaller star. It was reminiscent of the original Captain America uniform, but very different from anything like the propaganda show uniform. They even made him a new helmet. Steve wouldn’t let them take the shield. The paint was scratched and tarnished, but the vibranium underneath was as durable as ever.

Getting to use SHIELD’s resources was nice and all, but Bucky was waiting for the other shoe to drop. They wouldn’t keep giving, even though Steve and Bury were taking out their mutual enemy, without wanting something in return.

Bucky threw another knife at the pegboard. It landed with a crack. Fury looked over at it as he walked into the gym. Bucky straightened up and lowered his arm from where he was about to throw another knife. “Do you two ever sleep?” Fury asked.

“Slept for sixty years,” Steve said neutrally.

“Part of the perks of being a super soldier,” Bucky said. He walked over to the rack and collected the knives. “We don’t need much sleep.”

Fury looked at him, taking in his close proximity and the weapons, and then looked at Steve, like he was assessing them. “I’m here with a mission,” he said at last and held up a folder.

“I thought our mission was to find and wipe out Hydra facilities,” Steve said. He crossed his arms.

“Normally that is your primary mission. But that’s going to have to go on the back burner. This is a bigger priority.”

Steve and Bucky exchanged glances, but it was Steve who walked over and took the folder. He flipped it open to reveal a picture of the Tesseract, and his expression immediately hardened.

“Did Hydra get their hands on that again?” Bucky asked as he looked down at it from beside Steve.

“No,” Fury said. “It had been kept in secure storage since the forties, after Howard Stark fished it out of the ocean. Four years ago, it was moved to a private, hidden location.” He looked at Bucky pointedly, so he didn’t need to say it was Bucky’s message about Hydra that had prompted this. “Last year, we began testing the cube on its potential for unlimited energy.”

Bucky looked at him. He could feel the Winter Soldier assessing Fury’s statement. It wasn’t that Fury was lying, but he certainly wasn’t telling the whole truth. Unlimited energy was great, but that definitely wasn’t all they were doing with the cube.

“And then someone took it from you,” Steve said.

“He’s called Loki. He not from around here,” Fury said slowly, like he was making a joke.

Bucky took the folder from Steve and flipped through the few pages of information on the Tesseract. They certainly had been doing testing on it. When he looked up, Steve’s eyes were on him. He flipped the folder closed and nodded.

Steve looked back at Fury. “We’re in.”

“Good.” Fury handed them another, much larger, file. “This is what we have so far about Loki and the cube. And your team.”

“Team?” Bucky asked skeptically. He was about the protest, but Fury stopped him.

“Don’t give me any bullshit about working better alone,” Fury said, “I know perfectly well how you two work in a team.”

Bucky and Steve exchanged glances, but Bucky did not say anything.

“0600 tomorrow, gentlemen.” Fury walked around them towards the exit, but stopped halfway and looked back at them. “Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?”

Bucky had never dealt with the Tesseract directly. He’d never even seen it. Neither had the Winter Soldier, for that matter. He only knew what Hydra did with it. So he looked at Steve.

Steve considered the question for a moment, and then he said, “You should have left it in the ocean.”

Fury’s blank expression didn’t give anything away. He didn’t say anything else before leaving. They didn’t speak to each other as they left a few minutes later and they were quiet on the walk back to the apartment they shared in Brooklyn. While there were two distinct bedrooms, most nights they occupied one or the other. But they hadn’t exactly told SHIELD or anyone else about their relationship. It was the kind of thing that would have gotten them imprisoned or killed back in the forties. While it no longer seemed to be illegal, it still wasn’t something they wanted to broadcast.

“The Tesseract,” Bucky said once they were inside.

“It always comes back to Hydra, in the end,” Steve said with a sigh. He dropped his gym bag and looked at the packet of papers Fury had given them.

“Though, Loki, that’s not Hydra. But the name sounds familiar.” Bucky took some of the papers Steve handed to him.

“It’s Norse,” Steve said. “Norse mythology. Gods and stuff. Loki, Odin, Thor. I read it in a book when I was a kid.”

“So someone’s pretending to be a god?”

“Not exactly.” Steve held up another paper with information on the Loki who had stolen the cube, and the attack in New Mexico that had happened the previous year.

Bucky looked over the notes quickly. “This is nuts… Gods from space? The Tesseract is from _space_?”

“That would explain what I saw on the Valkyrie.”

Bucky looked at him curiously.

“When I fought Schmidt, I knocked the Tesseract out of its container. Schmidt picked it up and it started emitting this blue electricity. And then this… this rift opened up and I saw stars. Schmidt was disintegrated and then the rift disappeared. What I saw while it was open was outer space, wherever the Tesseract came from.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Well, I didn’t exactly have time to give a report on it before I crashed the plane into the ice.”

“True…” Bucky said slowly. He glanced at a clock. They had only a few hours until they would have to report to SHIELD for this mission. They really should try to get a few hours of sleep. But… Bucky leaned over Steve’s shoulder and latched his teeth onto Steve’s earlobe before licking along his neck in the way that Bucky knew Steve couldn’t possibly resist.

And in fact, Steve moaned loudly and dropped the papers, partially in surprise. “Bucky… We just got assigned a mission…”

“Which technically doesn’t start for five hours. We’ve got plenty of time.” He continued to suck on Steve’s neck as he slid his hands around Steve’s front.

“We’re supposed to actually _read_ these…” Even Steve’s half-assed protest sounded weak to his ears.

“We can do that after.” Bucky’s hands roamed lower.

Before Bucky had the chance to completely take him apart right there in the living room, Steve spun around and leaned in to kiss him hard, this time catching him by surprise. But Bucky eagerly recovered, and didn’t protest at all when Steve moved them to the closest bedroom. That little distraction was the reason Steve didn’t have a chance to look over all the materials. He still needed sleep eventually, whereas Bucky just let the Winter Soldier take over while he slept. And the Winter Soldier got through the whole packet. Steve didn’t hesitate to tell him that was cheating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had actually already tried to write a "Bucky is there for the events of the Avengers" fic, and that turned into something completely different. (It became ["One More Miracle"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3087215), if you're interested.) While I was wholly uninterested in doing a sequel originally because I thought it would just be a lot of movie dialog rehashing of The Avengers, I realized I could just pepper that with a lot of Winter Soldier/Bucky back and forthing, which is one of my favorite things. So I hope you enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

Bucky pulled the brim of his baseball cap lower over his eyes. They had reported to SHIELD in civilian clothes, for obvious reasons. They couldn’t very well walk through New York in uniform. Bucky, and especially the Winter Soldier, still had trouble interacting with normal people, which was ironic considering how much of a charmer Bucky had been before the war. That was a part of his personality lost after the fighting and torture and brainwashing. It was for that reason he chose to wear clothes that would allow him to blend into a crowd: dark colors, a high-collared jacket to hide the metal plates on his shoulder, a baseball cap. He also wore leather gloves to hide his left hand, even though it was summer. So he spent most his time with his hands in his pockets.

Steve, on the other hand, wore clothes that made him look much more approachable, light and neutral colors. And he didn’t cover his face. The contrast between them was like night and day. But it had been ever since Steve woke up from the ice. Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Steve was watching video footage about their future “teammates” while Bucky sat across from him in the back of the quinjet with his arms crossed. He kept the hat pulled low over his eyes so no one else would be able to tell if he was paying attention or not. Steve knew what he was doing, but didn’t say anything. So he focused on the tablet while Bucky focused on this Agent Coulson. There was something suspicious about the man that Bucky just couldn’t shake.

After the pilot informed Coulson they were almost at their destination, Coulson walked over to Steve. Bucky eyed him from beneath the brim of his cap, and he could feel the Winter Soldier on high alert. The Winter Soldier never trusted SHIELD, not even a little. When half your personality distrusted something, it was hard to go against that.

Steve had just finished watching video footage about the Hulk, AKA Dr. Bruce Banner. He frowned at the tablet. “So this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate Erskine’s serum?”

“A lot of people were,” Coulson said as he leaned over Steve. Neither of them looked over at Bucky, but Bucky felt the weight of the pause that came after that sentence. “You were the world’s first superhero,” he continued to say. “Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula.”

Bucky snorted. He could tell them all the kinds of things people thought were the keys to unlocking the formula, because they had all been done to him. Steve glanced over at him, which made Coulson turn and look at him as well. “Well, that didn’t work out for him,” he said dryly.

“Not so much,” Coulson agreed. His tone was casual, not like he was talking about a man who turned into a giant monster when he was angry. He looked between Steve and Bucky, sitting on either side of the quinjet. “I gotta say, it’s an honor to officially meet you.”

Bucky rolled his eyes and leaned back further against the wall, but Steve smiled at Coulson.

“When we found out it was actually you and not a copycat or third party taking down Hydra, it was really big news,” Coulson continued to gush. “You are a huge inspiration to a lot of SHIELD agents, having been part of the original SSR.”

_There is a word for that._

Bucky snorted to himself, and just stopped himself from responding out loud. Steve was used to the fact he occasionally talked to himself, but Bucky hadn’t told SHIELD that the Winter Soldier was actually a completely separate personality. They thought it was all him. And he wasn’t going to correct them. They would think he was crazy, and probably try to lock him up or run tests on him. He was never going back to a fucking laboratory.

_The word you are looking for,_ Bucky thought back, _is “fan.”_

_Yes. This Agent Coulson has been suspicious the entire journey._

_It’s because he’d been wanting to obsess over Steve the whole time. Mystery solved._

_He is still hiding something. I recommend extreme caution while at the SHIELD base._

_Of course you do._ Bucky paused as he watched Coulson continue to blather about how much of an honor it was to have Steve working with them. Even Steve looked a little uncomfortable from the attention. _I know. Something about the Tesseract business isn’t right._

_SHIELD has been testing it._

_But for what? That’s the question. However, this Loki character is the bigger problem right now. He’s more dangerous. So we have to help SHIELD retrieve the cube._

_Agreed._

“Prepare for landing,” the pilot said, breaking up both conversations, even if he had only been aware of the one. Steve stood to look out the front window and Coulson joined him there. From what Bucky could see, the aircraft carrier was huge. Even without Howard Stark, SHIELD had spectacular resources. Ten minutes later, they were on the ground.

Coulson continued to beam at Steve as he turned to greet a redhead who walked up to them. As soon as Bucky saw her face, alarms went off in his head. The Winter Soldier didn’t say anything, but his shock and borderline panic were palpable. No one else noticed.

“Agent Romanoff,” Coulson said to the redhead in greeting. He turned to introduce them. “Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes,” he said with so much pride you would think he had arranged for Steve to come himself.

For her part, Agent Romanoff only said, “Hi,” in a deadpan voice. Her eyes slid past Steve and lingered on Bucky. It was only a moment, and her face was completely blank, but there was clearly something there. She turned to Coulson and said, “They need you on the bridge.”

“See you there.” Coulson nodded to them and then headed towards the main building.

She looked back at Bucky, and then turned to Steve. “There was quite a buzz around here, finding out you were alive. I thought Coulson was going to swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?”

“Trading cards?” Steve asked in surprise.

“They’re vintage,” Agent Romanoff said. She sounded amused. “He’s very proud.” They spotted Dr. Banner, who was trying to keep out of everyone’s way, and they headed towards him.

Bucky decided to hang back by half a step so he could keep Agent Romanoff in front of him. _What?_ he asked firmly.

_Natalia Alianovna Romanova._ The Winter Soldier took on a distinctive Russian lilt.

_So she changed her name? How do you know her? She recognized us._

_A previous mission._

Bucky stared at the back of Agent Romanoff’s head. _How is she alive, then? You never failed a mission._

_She was not the target._

Great. He would shake the details out of the Winter Soldier later. This was why he preferred to only work with Steve and keep away from everyone else. He had ruined too many lives. There was too much baggage.

“Dr. Banner,” Steve said as he approached him, oblivious to the silent exchange. He held out his hand and Banner shook it.

“Oh yeah. Hi.” He sounded as nervous as he looked. He glanced at Agent Romanoff and Bucky as well. “They told me you two would be coming.”

“Word is you can find the cube.” Steve was doing that thing. The leader thing he was so good at during the war. He had, after all, managed to rally hundred of POWs and lead them back to the American line.

“Among other things,” Bucky muttered.

Banner glanced at him, still in that shifty nervous way, like he didn’t want to be caught looking. “But finding the Tesseract is the more important thing,” Steve said.

Banner looked back at Steve. It was obvious to see he was sizing up the two of them, determining their differences and similarities.

“I’ve seen what happens when the cube is in the hands of a mad man,” Steve continued.

_Or a government organization._ Bucky could feel the Winter Soldier’s amusement at his comment.

“Getting it back is the highest priority.”

Banner nodded like he was satisfied with what Steve said. Bucky supposed if you had an alternate personality that looked like a giant green monster that rampaged around destroying things, you would want recognition for something other than that. Lucky his own alternate personality was willing to think logically.

“Gentlemen,” Agent Romanoff said from behind them, “you may want to step inside in a minute. It’s going to get a little hard to breathe.”

They looked around as the distinct sounds of engines and turbines firing up surrounded them. The landing crew starting locking down the planes and preparing for departure.

Steve headed towards the edge. “Is this a submarine?” he asked in awe.

“Really?” Banner asked sarcastically. He looked over the edge with Steve. “They want me in a pressurized metal container?”

Bucky frowned and stepped up beside Steve. “No, it isn’t built right for that.”

Steve glanced at him, and then the three of them looked down as giant propellers rose out of the ocean and began to lift the entire aircraft carrier out of the water.

Banner laughed. “Oh no. This is much worse!”

Well, at least the man had a wry sense of humor. Bucky could appreciate that. Steve smirked at him and said, “A floating battleship.”

“SHIELD has all the toys,” Bucky responded.

“This is just like being back with the SSR.” Steve smiled and shook his head before he turned back to Agent Romanoff.

“Fury wants you all on the bridge. This way.” She lead them towards an entrance. They climbed a flight of stairs and walked through a set of double-doors that came out onto a bridge that put the Valkyrie to shame. Steve looked around, clearly impressed. Bucky took in the vast number of SHIELD agents, and the amount of terminals. Banner stayed by the door, well away from the flurry of activity.

“Let’s vanish,” Fury said from the control panel.

A severe-looking woman gave the order to deploy retro-reflection panels as Steve and Bucky made their way across the bridge to the front windows. Bucky looked down through the glass floor. “Retro-reflection panels on this huge thing?” he said quietly.

“It kinda makes our quinjet pale in comparison, doesn't it?” Steve said from beside him. He half turned so he could keep his eye on Fury and Banner as they shook hands. Good, he was paying attention, even if he was friendly and impressed.

“Which is itself four years out of date, anyway.” Bucky tilted his head slightly so he could smirk at Steve. “Though I could always steal a new one as we leave.”

“Somehow I don’t think SHIELD will let you get away with that,” Steve said, amused.

“Worth a shot, though.”

“Not if you don’t want SHIELD to lock you up and throw away the key.”

“Hey, I escaped from Hydra, so I don’t think SHIELD would be able to contain me.”

_Oh,_ you _escaped?_

Bucky sighed. “Fine, we escaped from Hydra.” Steve looked at him, and then he realized he had said that out loud. So he shrugged this one off. “It’s true.”

“Careful about that, Buck,” Steve said as quietly as he could, his lips barely moving.

“I know. Trust me, I know.”

They came around the side of the bridge and stopped near Agent Coulson just as he said, “...If it’s connected to a satellite, it’s eyes and ears for us.”

“That’s still not going to find them in time,” Romanoff said from where she was crouched down next to a display that had a picture of one of the SHIELD personnel Loki had brainwashed, according to the report they read. There were stats next to the image. Bucky realized she had been checking to see if there was an update about Agent Barton. Interesting.

“You have to narrow the field,” Banner said, no longer nervous. “How many spectrometers do you have access to?” It seemed once he was in his element, he stopped being afraid.

“How many are there?” Fury asked.

“Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places.” Banner took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. “Do you have somewhere for me to work?”

Fury nodded. “Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please.”

She nodded and stood. “You’re gonna love it, Doc,” she said as she lead him off the bridge. “We’ll got all the toys.”

Bucky glanced at Steve, who raised one eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Now that they were inside, he took his leather jacket off and went up to the conference table to place it on a chair. Bucky noticed Coulson watched him. When Fury went back to his control panel, Steve crossed his arms and looked around the bridge again. Bucky walked up to him and kept his back to the room.

“I’m going to look around,” he said quietly. Steve nodded once and kept his eyes forward. As Bucky started to move past him, Fury stopped him.

“Barnes.”

Bucky turned and looked back at him.

He held out an earpiece. “Stay in communication.” It was clear he meant don’t go snooping because we’ll be watching.

Bucky nodded and took the earpiece. He put it in place and headed for the door again.

“Here’s one for you too, Captain,” Coulson said as he walked up to Steve.

“Thanks,” Bucky heard Steve say as he walked through the door.

Once he was sufficiently far enough away from the bridge, and there was no one in sight, he said, “Tell me about that mission.” He didn’t need to clarify. The Winter Soldier knew what he was talking about. So he told Bucky about the mission that had him cross paths with Natalia Romanova, and as much of her history as he knew, with the KGB and the Red Room. Bucky listened silently while he wandered the ship, keeping to the areas he was allowed to go, but noting the places that were off-limits.

Bucky made his way back onto the bridge just as one of the agents said, “We’ve got a hit! Sixty-seven percent match. Wait, cross-match, seventy-nine percent.”

“Location?” Coulson said. He quickly walked up to the terminal.

Bucky took Coulson’s place where he had been talking with Steve. He quirked an eyebrow at him along with an amused smile.

“I’ll tell you later,” Steve mumbled.

“Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse,” the agent said. “He’d not exactly hiding.”

“Captain,” Fury said. Both Steve and Bucky turned to look at him. “You’re up,” Fury said seriously. Steve nodded, and started to leave the bridge. Bucky moved to follow him, but Fury said, “Not you, Barnes.”

“What?” Bucky narrowed his eyes.

“You have a tendency to cause collateral damage. Civilians are involved. Just Captain Rogers this time.”

_They’re separating you._

Bucky opened his mouth to argue, especially since he agreed with the Winter Soldier. But Steve put his hand on his soldier. “It’s okay, Bucky.”

Bucky looked at him and then crossed his arms. “Fine. Good luck.”

Steve nodded and went to get ready for the mission. Fury eyed Bucky for a moment longer before turning back to his console. So Fury didn’t trust him. He wanted Captain America, but he had gotten the Winter Soldier as well. Well, the mistrust was mutual. He followed Steve down the hallway and caught up with him quickly.

Steve turned and said, “Bucky, what’s—” but Bucky grabbed his arm and dragged him to a corner where he’d earlier observed the cameras couldn’t see. He pressed Steve up against the wall and kissed him hard.

Before Steve could react, he pulled back and smirked at him. “Stay on comms the whole time.”

Steve smiled in exasperation. “Of course. A little warning next time?”

Bucky’s cocky grin didn’t leave his face. “Never.”

Steve shook his head and moved around him. “Don’t get into trouble while I’m gone.”

“Yes sir,” Bucky said sarcastically. He watched Steve head off again. Instead of heading back to the bridge, he turned a corner and made his way to the lab where Banner was working. He paused in the doorway a moment, watching the various tools and machines react to whatever Banner was doing.

Banner turned towards the door on his way to something else and nearly jumped out of his skin. “Ah…” he said after he recovered. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

Bucky moved further into the room, but not close enough to be a threat. “Trained assassin,” he said by way of explanation. “Tend not to make noise.”

“Right…” Banner said. He watched Bucky, not quite nervously, but not quite curiously either. It was something in between. “I heard they think they found Loki. Shouldn’t you be suiting up to go get him?”

“Fury is sending Steve.” Bucky leaned against one of the tables in the room. He wanted to cross his arms, but he thought that would give away too much, so he rested his palms against the edge of the table. Having long since stripped off the gloves now that he was no longer around civilians, his metal hand clanked when it met the tabletop.

“And not you,” Banner said, connecting the dots.

“Yes.”

Banner nodded and moved back to whatever he’d been working on before Bucky came in. Even though they supposedly found Loki, Banner was still trying to find the Tesseract by his own means. It was why he was there, after all. Bucky was supposed to be there to fight, as an asset. But Fury didn’t trust him enough to send him out in the field.

“He thinks I’m too dangerous.” Bucky wasn’t really sure why he told Banner that. It just kind of came out.

“Aren’t you?” Banner asked without looking up from his work. “I read about your infiltration of SHIELD, and how you and Captain Rogers have been attacking Hydra bases.”

“That’s supposed to be classified.”

“They gave it to me when I agreed to help on this… assignment.” Banner glanced up at him. “You had files on me, correct?”

Bucky nodded. “True.” The Winter Soldier’s presence hummed under the surface, but he stayed surprisingly quiet during the exchange. “You don’t seem that nervous around me, though.”

Banner laughed once, though he didn’t sound very amused. “It’s not you I’m afraid of, trust me.”

Bucky tapped his metal finger against the table. He couldn’t understand what Fury was getting at, not sending him to fight Loki. He’d read the reports from New Mexico. These gods packed some serious power. Even if he didn’t trust Bucky, it didn’t make sense to keep him on the Helicarrier while Steve went to Germany. Why give him this mission at all?

_He knew Steve would not accept if we weren’t on the mission._

Bucky smiled wryly. Insight from the Winter Soldier was always surprising. And amusing. _So Fury plans to keep me where I won’t cause any damage while he makes use of Captain America?_

“Do you trust SHIELD?” Bucky asked Banner.

That surprised Banner. He looked up again. “I’m here.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow.

Banner sighed. “I don’t know. But as soon as I find the Tesseract, I’m leaving.”

_We’re not the only ones SHIELD wants somewhere they can keep an eye on us._

“No kidding.” Banner looked up in confusion, so Bucky quickly added, “Steve and I are on a mission to stop Hydra. This is taking us away from that. Once they have the cube back, we’ll go back to what we were doing.”

“Assuming it is that easy.” Banner continued to watch him.

Bucky nodded. His comm buzzed to life. Apparently Steve and Romanoff has arrived in Germany and found Loki. He listened to a short exchange between Steve and Loki, followed by the sounds of a fight. When Banner went back to work, he made his way back to the bridge and watched the video footage from the quinjet of the fight. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks all the kudos and kind words!
> 
> I realized as I was putting up the first chapter, that there was no Bucky/Winter Soldier banter in it. But I can assure you there will be plenty from here on out.
> 
> I'm sorry for all the movie dialog. I tried to keep it down to a minimum.


	3. Chapter 3

When Steve and Romanoff finally returned, it was with three new people. They had captured Loki, who was met with an armed escort when the quinjet landed. Tony Stark had appeared in his Iron Man suit. Apparently on the trip back, the other Asgardian magically showed up as well. Bucky didn’t think anyone could be more ripped than Steve, but this Thor certainly fit the image of “god.”

Bucky watched the SHIELD detail take Loki onto the Helicarrier as Steve stepped off the quinjet. “You okay?” Bucky asked.

Steve nodded and pulled off his helmet. “It was easy.”

Bucky did a once-over of Steve’s body with his eyes to make sure he was uninjured. When Romanoff had radioed in a problem bringing Loki back, Bucky suited up, just in case there was trouble when they landed.

“Too easy?”

Steve looked at him. “Yes,” he said as he watched a flash of light land. It was Stark’s Iron Man. He went into the Helicarrier without a word to anyone else.

“We can talk inside,” Romanoff said as she walked between them, leading the god of thunder. They met on the Bridge at the same time Banner walked through another door. He looked upset by something. Romanoff took a seat in front of a video terminal in the table, and so did Steve. Everyone else continued to stand, too tense to do anything else.

They listened to Fury “interrogate” Loki from outside a metal deathtrap. Loki had to know they were all watching, because he made references to the others, clearly trying to provoke them. Bucky stayed silent during the conversation that followed. He stood behind Steve’s chair while Steve directed the discussion, at least until Tony Stark showed up. That man was worse than Howard.

Bucky felt an unexpected twinge at that. Tony Stark was certainly similar to his father, his father who Bucky had murdered. Stark was standing only feet away from his parents’ murderer. Did he even know that? Fury certainly knew, but it was unclear what information that they had recovered from Hydra was released to others.

_This could cause a potential problem._

_If Stark knew, he would have done something,_ Bucky pointed out.

He didn’t realize he had started to focus internally until Banner and Stark walked off the bridge, presumably towards the lab. He met Steve’s eyes and could tell Steve had been trying to get his attention for a little while. He frowned in concern, and then he nodded for Bucky to follow him out of earshot of the others. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah… I just tuned out for a second. You said it was too easy,” Bucky said.

Steve sighed. He knew that by “tuned out,” Bucky actually meant he had been having a conversation with the Winter Soldier. But he didn’t push the topic. “Loki definitely wanted to get on this ship, but he had to make it look like he put up a fight.” He crossed his arms.

“So what does he want?”

_I suggest interrogation._

“I agree.”

“Buck,” Steve looked at him, both eyebrows raised.

“Sorry. I think I can crack Loki. Or at least, he can crack Loki.”

Steve nodded. “Be careful. Don’t let him get to you. I think that’s something he’ll try to do.”

“I can handle it.”

Steve nodded again, slowly. “I’m going to keep an eye on Dr. Banner and Stark. See what they come up with.”

“Good idea. They might accidentally set off that spear.”

“Also… Something about SHIELD’s part in this whole business…”

“I know what you mean,” Bucky said. He glanced back down the hallway, double-checking they really were alone.

Steve smiled lightly. He squeezed Bucky’s shoulder briefly, and moved past him towards the labs.

Bucky didn’t make it all the way to the center of the ship, however. He ran into Romanoff first. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him and eyed him suspiciously. “So. The infamous Winter Soldier.”

“Yes,” Bucky said slowly. Her expression didn’t give anything away, so it was hard to tell what she wanted from him.

“All this time, you really were a ghost.” Romanoff kept her feet splayed and her arms at her sides. “Do you remember me?”

“Yes,” the Winter Soldier said. Bucky wasn’t aware of giving up control to him, and it had been so long since they had fought for control that he didn’t struggle. However, when Bucky pushed him back down, he went willingly.

Romanoff watched him quietly. Maybe she noticed the change, maybe she didn’t. Steve could always tell, but as far as he knew, no one else could. But the Winter Soldier never spent much time in anyone else’s company. Anyone who met the Winter Soldier rather than Bucky usually ended up dead.

“It’s clear from your actions, that you are no longer controlled by Hydra. But a puppet with cut strings is still a puppet.”

Bucky narrowed his eyes at her. “I am under no one’s control. My actions are my own.”

“You spent not only years, but decades as Hydra’s weapon. From what we can tell, there was no outside force that prompted your escape. So I have a question for you. What changed?”

“What about you? A spy for the KGB. You’ve done your fair share of killing. What made you suddenly change sides?”

“Mercy,” she said simply. “I was always in control of my own actions. When I killed people, I chose to do that. So I chose to leave.” She paused. “But not you, Sergeant Barnes.”

She didn’t need to say Sergeant Barnes would never have chosen to become the Winter Soldier. That if he had actually kept control, things would have turned out differently. He would probably be dead, in fact. But he wouldn’t have turned into a monster.

“So what changed?”

“I woke up,” he said. He could feel the Winter Soldier bristling under the surface. He wanted to slip a knife out of his belt and end Black Widow here. But Bucky held him back. He didn’t trust SHIELD, but they trusted her. There had to be a reason for that.

She titled her head slightly as she looked at him. He still couldn’t read her expression, but he knew she was analyzing him. “Fury thinks you won’t turn against us. But I know how conditioning works. Watch yourself, Barnes.” She stepped around him and turned down a side hallway.

Bucky turned to watch her walk away. “Same to you,” he said levelly.

_She is not heading towards the Bridge._

Bucky narrowed his eyes and watched Romanoff turn a corner. _No,_ he agreed. _She’s taking a roundabout route to Loki._

They looked down the direction she had gone silently, and then the Winter Soldier commented, _She has the same plan._

_But is it her plan or Fury’s plan? Who is she really working for?_

He decided to continue the way he came, which meant he arrived at the entrance to the detention area just as Loki said, “After. After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate.”

Bucky hung back in the shadows of the doorway. Loki clearly hadn’t noticed him. He was uncertain whether or not Romanoff had, but her attention seemed to be focused on Loki as they talked. Bucky listened to the exchange silently.

“Before I worked for SHIELD,” she said slowly, “I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn’t care who I used it for. Or on.”

_Sound familiar?_ Bucky thought to the Winter Soldier.

_She was trained by the Red Room. Used for the same purpose._

_Brainwashed?_ Bucky asked.

_Most likely, though not to the extent Hyrda tried to brainwash us._

_They created you, didn’t they? Not so much of a “try” as a “did.”_

“I got on SHIELD’s radar in a bad way,” Romanoff continued. “Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call.” She reminisced the event fondly. She was showing too much emotion for a spy.

_She’s acting, definitely._

_He doesn’t suspect._

_Well, he’s probably never dealt with female spies up in Vikingland._

It seemed too easy for Loki to turn the conversation around on Romanoff. Even from within his cell, he had her retreating. “This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child’s prayer. Pathetic!” he spat at her. “You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code. Something that makes up for all the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away.”

Everything Loki said could apply to Bucky as well. _Glad we let her handle this?_

_I would not be so shaken by words._

_So you say. But that’s because he laid out Romanoff’s dirty laundry. What if he has access to our track record? The people we’ve killed._

The Winter Soldier was silent.

“I won’t touch Barton!” Loki said viciously as he slammed his arm against the glass, which made Romanoff flinch and take a step back in surprise. “Not until I make him kill you. Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear. And then he’ll wake just long enough to see his good work.” Romanoff finally had enough, and she quickly turned away to cover her face. “And when he screams I’ll split his skull!”

_Sick bastard._

_I do not doubt he would do it, too._

“This is my bargain, you mewling quim.”

Romanoff covered her face and it sounded like she was close to crying when she said, “You’re a monster.” But from where Bucky stood, he could see her face was dry.

Loki smirked and straightened up. “Oh no, you brought the monster.”

Romanoff straightened, and Bucky could see her lips quirk into a smile. But she turned back on Loki with a calm face. “So. Banner. That’s your play.”

Loki was surprised to see she was not distraught, and even more surprised by her comment. “What?” He still hadn’t figured out what had just happened.

Romanoff touched her earpiece to turn it on as she started to head back to the doorway. “Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I’m on my way. Send Thor as well.” Loki stalked around the edge of his cell, watching her leave. Romanoff paused and turned back to him just before she reached the door. “Thank you for your cooperation.” When she turned back around it was to see Bucky standing there, smirking. She left and he followed. “You too. Let’s go.” Her pace was fast.

Bucky fell into step behind her. “Was that true? What you told Loki about Barton?”

“How I met Agent Barton is public record in SHIELD.” She didn’t look at him as she lead the way towards the labs.

“So you lied with the truth.”

“Basic spy training 101.” She glanced at him. “You had the same plan.”

“We’re not so different, you and I,” he said.

“That is why I do not trust you, Barnes.”

“Smart. But just know this,” he looked at the back of her head, and how her red curls bounced around her face as she walked, “I’m always with Steve. It’s not about doing the right thing or being good. It’s about fighting at Steve’s side. That you can count on.”

She glanced at him again and seemed to take in that information. They met Thor just as they turned down the hallway towards the lab. They could hear angry voices, including Steve’s saying, “I was wrong, director. It seems SHIELD really isn’t different from Hydra.”

The three of them walked in and the first thing Bucky saw was the Hydra weapon sitting on a table next to Steve. No wonder he sounded so angry.

“Did you know about this?” Banner gestured at Romanoff and then at the computer screen that displayed an image of some kind of missile.

“You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?” Romanoff asked calmly. They had come in here to stop Banner from losing it and turning into the Hulk, and he seemed well on his way towards that state.

“I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed,” he said, anger bubbling under the surface.

Bucky stepped over to Steve and could see the Hydra weapon wasn’t a museum piece; it had been recently used. “What the hell is this?” he hissed as he rounded on Fury.

“What SHIELD’s been doing with the Tesseract,” Steve said. “The same exact thing as Hydra.”

“Only worse,” Stark chimed in.

“Doctor,” Romanoff continued, “Loki is manipulating you.” She stayed on task, whereas Bucky was more concerned with SHIELD using Hydra weapons.

“And you’ve been doing what, exactly?”

“You didn’t come here because I bat my eyelashes at you.” Romanoff moved closer to him, her voice low and some-what threatening.

“And I’m not leaving because you suddenly get a little twitchy.” Banner took hold of the screen and pointed at the missile with his glasses. “I want to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

Everyone looked at Fury and there was a moment of silence, because Fury held up his arm and pointed at Thor. “Because of him.”

That sufficiently surprised everyone. “Me?” Thor asked, baffled.

“Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned.” Fury looked at each of them, as if daring them to challenge him.

“My people want nothing but peace with your planet,” Thor said defensively.

“But you’re not the only people out there, are you?” Fury stared down Thor, which was impressive since Thor was massive. “And you’re not the only threat. Hydra alone is a big enough threat to warrant these kinds of weapons. The world is filling up with people who can’t be matched, they can’t be controlled. ” Fury looked around at them, and it was obvious they were on that list.

“Like you controlled the cube?” Steve asked.

“We kept it out of Hydra’s hands for seventy years, in case you forgot that, Captain.” Fury looked at him.

“You didn’t even know Hydra was right under your noses until I had to point it out to you four years ago.” Bucky stepped forward slightly to draw Fury’s gaze off Steve. “Keeping the Tesseract away from Hydra was sheer, dumb luck.”

“And since you launched us into a war with Hydra, we have had to come up with bigger and badder ways to stop them, including using the Tesseract.”

“You did? Or is that Hydra, still working under the surface?”

“SHIELD is clean of any Hydra agents.” Fury looked at him. “It’s soldiers we seem to have a problem with.”

“You…” Bucky started to say as he took a step closer, but Steve put his hand on his shoulder to hold him back.

“Even still, you’re trying to use the cube, just like Hydra,” Steve said.

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies.” Thor added as he stepped forward. “It is a signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war.”

“A higher form?” Steve said. He glanced at Bucky.

“You forced our hand.” Fury was back on defensive. “We had to come up with something.”

“A nuclear deterrent,” Stark said quickly. He had his hands in his pockets and he leaned against a table. “Cause that always calms everything right down.”

Stark had a point, but Fury turned on him anyway. “Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark.”

Steve turned and glared at Stark as well. “I’m sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep.”

“Wait, wait, hold on, how is this now about me?” Stark asked in surprise.

“I’m sorry,” Steve said sarcastically. “Isn’t everything?”

Thor was still glaring at Fury, clearly not happy with the comment he had made earlier. “I thought humans were more evolved than this.”

Fury rolled his one eye and spun back around. “Excuse me, do we come to your planet and blow stuff up?”

“You understand that this is serious, right?” Steve continued to glare at Stark. Whatever had happened when they met, and when Bucky was busy tracking Romanoff, had really rubbed Steve the wrong way. Not that Bucky could blame him. Tony Stark was a pale copy of Howard, who had at least earned their trust. He hadn’t been a soldier, but he was right there on the front lines with them.

“What is it about me that bothers you?” Stark glared up at Steve.

“You’re everything that was wrong with the world we grew up in,” Bucky said, taking Steve’s side. Behind them, the other four continued to argue. “At least your father gave a damn about the world.”

“Are you boys really that naive?” Romanoff said loudly. “SHIELD monitors potential threats.

“Captain America is on the threat list?” Banner asked.

“We all are,” Romanoff continued. “Some with more reason than others.”

Bucky turned to glare back at her, “I’m not the only ex-assassin.”

“What part of you is ex? You drop bodies wherever you go,” she shot back.

“Since when is the Black Widow afraid of dropping bodies?” he taunted. “And those are all Hydra. They deserve whatever they get.

“Oh good,” Stark said from behind him. “Another juiced idiot. Just because you can use a gun doesn’t make you anything special.”

“Said like a true coward,” Steve said. “You build the weapons and cower behind them while actual soldiers fight and die.”

“You speak of control,” Thor said loudly, trying to sound amused through his anger, “yet you caught chaos!”

“That’s his M.O., isn’t it?” Banner said. He hovered near the work table with his arms crossed. “I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no, we’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We’re,” Banner shifted from one foot to the other and back again, “we’re a time bomb.”

“You need to step away,” Fury said, trying to sound as commanding as possible.

“Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?” Stark asked.

“You know damn well why!” Steve got right up in his face. “Now back off.”

Stark sized him up, and then said, “Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me.”

“Yeah, big man in a suit of armor,” Steve said as he walked around Stark. He leaned down slightly in a way that was actually reminiscent of the bullies he hated so much as a kid. But then, Stark was exactly the kind of kid who Bucky would have pulled off Steve and sent crying home to his mama. “Take that away and what are you?”

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,” Stark said without missing a beat.

“What does all that money get you, Stark?” Bucky said.

“I know normal men with none of that stuff who are still worth ten of you,” Steve said. The way he said it, it sounded like the worst insult anyone could give. “And I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You’re not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you.” This was something both he and Steve had done, so they knew what that took. Tony Stark didn’t have it.

Case and point, Stark just said, “I think I would just cut the wire.”

Steve smirked, satisfied that his point had been proven. He turned and looked at Bucky before he continued. “Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.”

“A hero? Like you two?” Stark shot back at him, his eyes moving quickly between the super soldiers standing in front of him. “You’re a laboratory experiment, Rogers.” He rounded on Bucky. “And I don’t even know what the hell you are other than screwed up in the head.” He turned to glare at Steve again. “Everything special about you came out of a bottle.” He glared at Bucky. “And you’re just a Hydra puppet. You’re not the only one who's seen footage. At least when I fight, I save people. You just kill them.”

Bucky ground his teeth. “You have no fucking idea what the hell you’re talking about.”

For his part, Steve just stood there and clenched his jaw. Bucky knew how he felt about the procedure, about not being taken seriously. It was taking all Bucky’s self-control not to punch Stark in the face, so he imagined Steve had to be furious. “Put on the suit. Let’s go a few rounds.”

They were distracted by the sound of Thor laughing. “You people are so petty! And tiny.”

“Yeah, this is a team,” Banner said sarcastically, which made Steve take a step back so he could see him. Stark rubbed his hand across his face. The man was probably scared shitless that Steve would follow through on his threat.

Fury sighed. “Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his…”

“Where?” Banner said, cutting him off. “You rented my room,” he said, voice still full of snark and anger.

“The cell was just in case…” Fury started to say, in an attempt to calm him down.

But Banner cut him off again. “In case you needed to kill me,” he said bluntly. “But you can’t. I know. I tried.” Everyone stared at him in shock, and he realized what he had just admitted. He crossed his arms and shifted uncomfortably under all the stares. “I got low. I didn’t see an end. So I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spat it out.” He paused, letting that image linger. “So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good.” As he continued to speak, he picked up speed, and passion. What he didn’t seem to notice was how he also reached back and wrapped his hand around the spear. “Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff?" he asked, rounding on her. He dragged the spear after him, clenching it tightly in his hand. “You want to know how I stay calm?”

Fury and Romanoff both dropped their hands to their sidearms. Out of the corner of his eye, Bucky could see Stark take half a step back. There was a certain grim satisfaction in that, but Bucky didn’t pause on it as he also subtly pulled two throwing knives out of his belt. They were going to have to make a decision if Loki’s spear was more dangerous than the Hulk.

Before anyone could do anything, Steve put his hand on Bucky’s forearm, keeping him from using the knife. “Dr. Banner,” he said as calmly as he could. “Put down the scepter.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You have no idea how many times I re-worked the argument scene... But it was fun!


	4. Chapter 4

Banner looked down at the scepter and seemed completely shocked to find it clutched in his hand. However, he didn’t immediately follow Steve’s order to put it down. The tension in the room was high, as every person had been arguing with everyone else, and they had just heard that Banner had tried to kill himself. Even more stunning than that was the fact that because of the Hulk, it didn’t work. A computer in the corner started beeping, which broke the tension in the room like a knife cutting a taut wire. Everyone looked back at the terminal, and Stark said, “Got it,” sounding a little shaken.

Banner finally put the spear back on the table and walked through the group to get to the computer. “Sorry kids, you don’t get to see my party trick after all,” he said, but even the sarcasm was half-assed.

“You located the Tesseract?” Thor asked.

“I can get there faster,” Stark said quickly.

“The Tesseract belongs on Asgard,” Thor said firmly to Fury. “No human is a match for it.”

When Stark started to leave, Steve grabbed his arm. “You’re not going alone!”

Stark smacked his hand off. “You’re gonna stop me?”

“Definitely,” Bucky said at the same time that Steve said, “Put on the suit and let’s find out.”

“I’m not afraid to hit an old man,” Stark said back.

“Put on the suit,” Steve said through gritted teeth, stepping up in Stark’s face again.

From across the room, they heard Banner mutter “Oh my god…” at whatever he saw on the screen. But it was cut short as an explosion tore through the building. Banner and Romanoff, who’d been moving to look over Banner’s shoulder, went flying out a window onto a lower level, and the others were knocked back into the corners of the room.

“Steve!” Bucky said quickly as he pulled himself up. Steve and Stark had been thrown into the doorway, but both seemed fine. He helped Steve get up and Steve looked between them before saying quickly to Stark, this time completely serious, “Put on the suit!”

“Yeah,” Stark agreed, and stumbled out the door. Steve and Bucky followed him.

“You okay?” Steve asked as his eyes met Bucky’s.

“Yeah, still all here,” he said. “What the hell caused that?”

“We’re under attack.”

Static crackled on their ear pieces, and then they could hear Fury and Hill talking. “Someone’s got to get outside and patch that engine,” Hill’s voice said.

“Stark, do you copy that?” Fury said. He sounded out of breath. He must have taken more damage in the explosion.

“I’m on it,” Stark said in front of them, into his own earpiece.

Steve continued to follow him, but Bucky grabbed his arm to stop him. “They’re going to try to break Loki out. My guess is it’s a small team, and that’s how they were able to sneak up on the Helicarrier and attack.”

“We need to fix that engine, though,” Steve said as he turned to look back at Bucky. He was instead greeted by the Winter Soldier’s eyes. “Oh, you.”

“I’m going to find the infiltration unit and take them down. You go with Stark and repair the engine.”

“Is Bucky still there?”

“He’s here, but this is my expertise.”

“Don’t you dare take any unnecessary risks. SHIELD is on our side, let them help. And don’t kill any of them.”

“Fine,” the Winter Soldier grunted.

“Good luck.” Steve turned to see Stark had been watching them through that exchange. However, he didn’t comment on it.

All Stark said was, “Engine three. I’ll meet you there,” before he turned to the container holding his Iron Man suit.

Steve looked at the Winter Soldier again and nodded before he turned and ran towards one of the outside hatches of the ship. The Winter Soldier turned back towards the area of the explosion. They had obviously picked to take out that engine for a reason.

_Shit, Stark heard that._

“Not a concern right now,” the Winter Soldier said calmly as he made his way into one of the large ventilation shafts, looking for a possible entrance.

_It will be later! No one else is supposed to know there are actually two of us. They’ll try to experiment on us again. And there’s no fucking way I’m going back to a lab._

“Neither am I.” The Winter Soldier’s voice was full of calm, deadly passion. “If it is a problem, I will eliminate the problem.”

_You can’t kill Stark. Another Stark._

“Why not?”

_Well for one, that will be even worse than if he tells people we’re fucking crazy. The Winter Soldier suddenly kills Tony Stark without any probable cause._

“The man is a dangerous nuisance.”

_That is not probable cause._

“Then what do you suggest?”

_When this is over, we may have to do something less drastic. Like threaten him._

“Records show Tony Stark does not listen to threats.”

Bucky groaned. _Then we’ll think of something else! Find the bad guys!_

They found an outside vent busted in, with a rope running down from the landing strip. On the earpiece, Steve’s voice crackled, “Stark? Stark, I’m here!”

“Good,” Stark’s voice responded. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”

Bucky listened to the two talk while the Winter Soldier stalked through the ventilation shaft, following the direction the attackers had gone. “They split up.” The Winter Soldier looked several directions. “Detention. The Bridge. Engine Three.”

_Steve._

“We need to stop them from releasing Loki.”

_We need to stop them from attacking the Bridge. If they get access to the computers, they’ll take this whole thing down._

“The majority of SHIELD personnel will be on the Bridge. They can handle themselves.”

_Detention, then._

The Winter Soldier turned down that direction. He dropped down onto one of the main walkways into a group of men coming back from the Bridge. The men were wearing SHIELD uniforms, but they immediately turned on him and started shooting. The Winter Soldier ducked around them easily in the close quarters, and managed to slash two throats and stab another in the chest before the rest could even reload. The whole hallway slanted to the side, and while it caught the attackers off guard, the Winter Soldier propped his foot against the tilted wall and pulled out his handgun to finish off the last of them.

“It’s Barton!” Fury’s voice suddenly sounded over the comms. “He took out our systems. He’s headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?”

“This is Agent Romanoff.” Her voice was deadly low. She sounded badly shaken, and not as if she had been acting. She had been thrown out with Banner when the explosion happened. Bucky thought he had heard the sounds of roars earlier, but he hadn’t been sure. Banner must have turned into the Hulk and tried to attack her. “I copy,” she said.

_Then we go after Loki._

The Winter Soldier nodded. He ran for the same detention level they had been on what seemed like only minutes before. Halfway there, the hallway had collapsed. The Hulk had definitely been unleashed with this level of destruction. He was glad for having explored the Helicarrier earlier, because he was able to reroute fairly easier. When he reached detention, the whole cell was gone. It must have been dropped through the chute in the floor. There was a hole in the opposite wall, and the Winter Soldier was about to run through it, but he stopped when he saw Coulson on the floor, gasping for air and breathing badly.

The Winter Soldier would have kept going without hesitation, but Bucky paused to look at him. He could tell the injury was bad. Even if he stayed and tried to help Coulson, there probably wasn’t much he could do. So he said, “Loki?”

Coulson looked up at him. His face was ashen, and it seemed like he couldn’t move the rest of his body. “Hit him… But he got away… That way…” He couldn’t even point towards the hole in the wall, but that was where his gun was pointed, so obviously that was where Loki had gone.

Bucky nodded and jumped through the ragged gash. It was easy to tell the direction Loki had gone based on the debris. He came out onto the runway just behind a group of more of Loki’s goons, and Loki himself.

The Winter Soldier raised his gun and shot at the man directly next to Loki. He fell like a sack of potatoes, and Loki spun around to see the attacker. He smirked when he caught sight of the Winter Soldier.

“The other soldier,” he said, amused. “But you’re not really, anymore, are you?”

He held up his spear and blasted at the Winter Soldier, but he rolled out of the way and brought his gun up to shoot at Loki. The other guards around him raised their guns to help, but Loki waved them towards a quinjet that was getting ready to take off.

“Not Captain America’s little sidekick. You’re a killer.” He tried to blast the Winter Soldier again, so he was forced to take cover behind a large vent. “Just like the rest of SHIELD.”

“I’m not SHIELD!” the Winter Soldier yelled back.

“No, of course not. You’re Hydra.”

The Winter Soldier popped out to shoot at Loki again, but the bullets did nothing. He could only duck as Loki blasted the vent, making it barely big enough to act as cover

“It’s permanently engraved on your body, after all.”

Another blast hit the vent. One more and bye bye cover. He had no where else to hide. He would be out in the open, and it was clear he couldn’t possibly take on a god by himself. He dropped the gun and pulled his throwing knives out of his belt.

“Isn’t that what that arm is?” The Winter Soldier tightened his grip on the knife handle. “A mark that you belong to Hydra.”

Rather than pop around the vent, he rolled away. Which was good planning, because Loki’s next blast would have gotten him. As it happened, it missed wildly, which gave him the chance to throw a knife straight at Loki’s throat.

Being a god, however, Loki had faster reflexes than even him. He caught the knife by its handle, inches from his throat. He smiled in amusement and threw it back at the Winter Soldier, who realized what had happened a second too late. He dodged sideways, but the knife still made a decent gash in his upper arm. He looked up, prepared for another attack, but all he found was Loki retreating onto the quinjet as it lifted into the air. He had failed.

_Get back to Steve._

The Winter Soldier nodded, and ran for Engine Three. Once he was back inside, it was clear the Helicarrier was plummeting and tilted madly. He never missed a step even as the whole thing started to shift forward as the Helicarrier dropped. They found several more men running towards an open door that lead to open air, where the explosion had torn a hole in the hull. They were trying to shoot Steve, who was pinned against an exposed wall with nowhere to run.

“Steve!” Bucky said. He took a running start and grabbed one around the throat and used his metal arm to throw him into another man. He hadn’t even realized he had pulled back control from the Winter Soldier. The Helicarrier titled again, and he glanced up just in time to see Steve go sliding off the catwalk. “No!!” Bucky may have been able to survive 200 hundred feet, but there was no way Steve could survive 17,000. He ignored the last man still shooting at them, only occasionally lifting his metal arm to block as he jumped off the wall to get up to the catwalk.

Steve had just barely managed to grab a cable and was clinging to it desperately as he swung through the air. Loki’s man continued to shoot at them as Bucky grabbed the cable and wrapped it around his metal arm. He yanked as hard as he could and pulled Steve back onto the Helicarrier. “Steve!” he said in exasperation as he helped him up.

“The lever,” Steve panted as he clutched Bucky’s shoulder, which made him wince in pain because he grabbed his right one.

Bucky turned and saw the red lever next to them. He yanked it down as the man below them started shooting again. Before either of them had a chance to do anything about that, Stark flew around the engine and into the opening, right into the guy. He pinned the man against the wall, probably killing him instantly and collapsed on the floor. His armor looked like it had been through a blender, which, considering he had been trying to restart a turbine, it probably had. Steve pulled the lever back up and they could hear the sound of the engine getting back up to full speed.

Steve touched his earpiece so he could connect with Fury and the others and he held tightly to the rail beside him. “Engine Three is back up…” He dropped his head, panting heavily.

“You okay?” Bucky asked.

Steve nodded and smiled weakly at him. “Just jumping around the outside of a flying battleship. No big deal.” The smile dropped off his face. “Did you stop Loki from getting out?”

Bucky shook his head. “I couldn’t stop him. _He_ couldn’t stop him. The guy’s too powerful...” He stood and offered his left hand to Steve, who took his arm and pulled himself up. They stood like that for a moment, close, Steve still clasping Bucky’s arm.

“Hey you three!” Stark’s voice interrupted them, not projected from the suit.

They stepped away from each other and looked down to see Stark standing there with his helmet off. Before they could say anything, Fury’s voice spoke over the comms. “Agent Coulson is down.”

Another SHIELD agent said, “Paramedics are on their way.”

“They’re here,” Fury responded. Steve and Bucky looked at each other, and then Bucky looked down. He had left Coulson to die without trying to help. “They called it.”

Below them, Stark looked down, and then looked away. After a moment, he said, “Come on…”

Steve and Bucky jumped down from the catwalk and followed Stark back into the Helicarrier. He ended up having to take his armor off piece by piece since the propellers had done such a number on it. He didn’t say anything as Steve and Bucky headed to the locker that had held their uniforms. According to reports coming in, the fighting was over. Loki was gone, his men were dead, and Barton had been captured. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rest of The Avengers is pretty much all one long scene, so I had to make some creative chapter cuts. I did my best to make it flow.
> 
> Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone!


	5. Chapter 5

Steve was silent as he unzipped his uniform and hung it up. He stayed in his blue undershirt and propped his palms against the edge of the container, bowing his head. Bucky pulled the outer layer of his own uniform off and winced sharply as he moved his right arm. That got Steve’s attention. He turned quickly and saw the gash now that it wasn’t hidden under the uniform.

“You’re injured. Why didn’t you say anything?” He grabbed the first aid kit quickly and opened it.

“It’s fine. It’s only a flesh wound,” Bucky said quietly.

“Bucky…” Steve said. His voice was raw, but tender, full of exasperation and disappointment. “C’mere.” He forced Bucky to sit while he kneeled in front of him and cleaned the wound and bandaged his upper arm. When he was done, he gently rested his fingers against Bucky’s skin, with his head bowed.

“We failed,” he said quietly. “We… I was so wrapped up in a petty argument that I couldn’t see the threat right in front of me. And now people are dead.”

“Steve,” Bucky said. He ran his metal fingers gently through Steve’s hair and forced him to look up at him. “I fought the guy. He knew what he was doing. He was playing us from the beginning. If it didn’t happen that way, it was gonna happen some other way. He… he was a step ahead of us.”

“Yeah,” Steve sighed. “After fighting Hydra for so long, I forgot there are other enemies.” he lowered his eyes again and rested his forehead against Bucky’s collar bone.

“Well, it did take us seventy years to beat Hydra...”

Steve huffed out a laugh but didn’t say anything else. He stayed where he was for a few more moments, and neither of them said anything.

“Stark. Rogers. Barnes,” Fury’s voice was quiet, but still seemed to echo in their ears. “Report to the bridge.” He had lost the commanding tone from earlier. This sounded more like a request.

They complied nevertheless. Stark looked pretty bruised, but he hadn’t changed out of the T-shirt he’d been wearing earlier. He sat in a seat to the left of the table, and Steve took a seat on the other side. Bucky didn’t sit. He and the Winter Soldier hated the vulnerability it caused. So he hovered behind Steve’s chair with his arms crossed and his feet firmly planted.

Fury stood at the head of the table. He flipped through what looked like cards. “These were in Phil Coulson’s jacket,” he said without any preamble. “Guess he never did get you to sign them.” He tossed the cards across the table and they scattered, smearing blood along the glass. Steve picked up the one closest to him and flipped it over to reveal a colored photo from his old USO shows. So Romanoff hadn’t been making that up. From the way Steve looked at the card, Bucky could only guess Coulson really had asked him to sign them at some point.

“We’re dead in the air up here,” Fury said. “Our communications, location of the cube. Banner. Thor. I’ve got nothing for you,” he sighed. “Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming.”

He paused and looked at the three of them around the table. Steve still looked down at the cards, and Stark looked away from the table, refusing the make eye contact with anyone. Bucky tapped his index finger against his metal arm.

“Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract,” Fury admitted after a beat. “I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this.”

Stark raised his head at the mention of his name, but he still did not look back at any of them.

“Called the Avengers Initiative,” Fury continued. “The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to. To fight the battles we never could.” Fury looked at the three of them. So this was why he had wanted Steve and Bucky in the first place. If it worked, having two super soldiers on a team like that would be useful. “Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes.”

As he said the last part, Stark pushed himself out of his seat like he was going to storm out. Instead, he glanced back at them and then walked out sadly, like he couldn’t hear anymore. Steve set the Captain America trading card back on the table silently.

“Well,” Fury stood behind the table and clasped his arms behind his back, “it’s an old-fashioned notion.”

Bucky looked after Stark, and then he looked back down at Steve, who was still staring at the table. After a moment, he sighed and stood as well. He didn’t say anything as he followed Stark out of the room, so Bucky followed him. Neither Fury nor Hill tried to stop them. Outside the bridge, Steve stopped. Bucky stopped behind him.

“I just met the guy.”

“I know.”

“He seemed to keep everything together, though. Stark already knew him, Thor too.” Steve turned and looked at Bucky. “Loki knew who to attack to destroy this team before it could even form.”

“He came onto the Helicarrier to make Banner lose control and turn into the Hulk. That’s why he let you capture him.”

Steve nodded slowly in comprehension. “And we fell for it.”

“Even when we knew. We couldn’t help wanting to tear at each others’ throats.” Bucky looked down the hallway. “He wanted the Hulk to rampage and cripple SHIELD. His whole purpose was to cause as much damage as possible from inside. Now Thor and Banner are gone who knows where. An agent everyone here seemed to actually trust is dead. And we don’t know where Loki or the Tesseract are.”

“Sounds pretty hopeless when you put it like that.”

Bucky looked back at him. “I’m thinking maybe it would have been better if we let SHIELD be. Continued going after Hydra.”

Steve shook his head. “You don’t really think that. Because you don’t want Loki to accomplish what he’s planning any more than I do. Come on.” He put his hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “Let’s go find Stark and talk some sense into him. Mission isn’t over.”

_We have never left a mission unfinished._

Bucky snorted a bitter laugh. “It’s always weird when you two agree.”

Steve didn’t seem surprised by the comment. He had used the Winter Soldier’s favorite word, after all. They found Stark in the detention area. He stood with his back to the control panel, looking down at the empty space that the cell used to inhabit. Steve walked up the metal steps to what had been the entrance to the cell. He leaned against the rail so he could look at Stark and crossed his arms. Bucky stayed at the bottom of the stairs, though, watching both of them.

Stark hadn’t said anything when they entered, so Steve asked, “Was he married?”

“No.” Stark didn’t look over. “There was a cellist, I think…”

“I’m sorry,” Steve said sincerely. “He seemed like a good man.”

Stark scoffed. “He was an idiot.” He stepped back from the drop and started to head for the exit.

Steve moved to intercept him. “Why, for believing?”

“For taking on Loki alone,” Stark said quickly. “Even this one couldn’t do it alone.” He nodded at Bucky, but didn’t look at him.

Steve looked at him sympathetically. He was directing his grief into anger, thinking if Coulson had done something different, he wouldn’t have gotten himself killed. Bucky looked away. Yeah, he’d thought that about himself before, about his last mission in the war. “He was doing his job,” Steve said.

“He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…” Stark shook his head.

“Sometimes there isn’t a way out, Tony.” Bucky looked back up at the fact that Steve used Stark’s first name. Not an hour ago they had been about ready to come to blows.

“Right.” Stark said sarcastically as he started to walk past Steve. He looked at Bucky and then turned towards the door. “How did that work out for him?”

Steve turned and said to his back, “Is this the first time you’ve lost a soldier?”

That stopped Stark in his tracks. He spun around and yelled, “We are _not_ soldiers.” He realized how unsettled he sounded, and looked away.

From behind him, Bucky said quietly, “We are.”

Stark looked at him and then looked at Steve again. He looked back at Bucky. “All three of you?” Bucky leaned his hand against the rail a couple steps below Stark and Steve, and quirked one eyebrow. But he didn’t say anything. “It’s true, isn’t it? The Winter Soldier isn’t your code name. It’s a split personality.”

_He_ does _know. I can handle this._

Bucky watched Stark for a moment. _No,_ he told the Winter Soldier. Out loud, he said, “More or less. We don’t exactly fit into the model for dissociative identity disorder, at least what I’ve read of it. But yes. The Winter Soldier is a separate personality. We can communicate, and either of us can take control at any given time.”

“And he knew?” Stark pointed his thumb back at Steve.

“Yes,” Steve said.

“You know that is actually, literally certifiably crazy, right?”

Bucky shrugged one shoulder. “Doesn’t stop it from being true.”

“But it’s all in your head.”

“Yes, it is. But there are certain things the Winter Soldier…” Bucky sighed and took a breath. “There are certain things I can do as the Winter Soldier that I can’t do when I’m James Barnes. And the opposite applies too. There are certain things I can do as me, that he can’t do.”

Stark looked between him and Steve. “An ex-brainwashed super soldier with a split personality isn’t any stranger than gods and space armies, I guess.” He shook his head and started to walk out past Bucky again.

“Stark,” Steve said to stop him.

Stark sighed and stopped. “Look, I’m not marching to Fury’s fife.”

“Neither are we,” Steve said. He looked at Bucky, and Bucky nodded in agreement. “He’s got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. But right now we’ve got to put that aside and get this done.” Stark looked away, but he didn’t try to leave again. “Now Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list…”

“He made it personal,” Stark said suddenly, cutting Steve off. He looked away from the blood stain on the wall where Coulson had died.

Steve shook his head. “That’s not the point.”

“That _is_ the point,” Stark shot back. He seemed to regain his normal, snarky groove. “That’s Loki’s point.” He stepped up past Steve and started pacing. “He hit us all where we live. Why?”

Bucky walked over to Steve and looked at Stark. “To tear us apart. Basic tactics.”

Stark paused in his pacing and held up a finger like he was thinking. “Divide and conquer’s good…” he said slowly. “But he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That’s what he wants.” He was on a roll now. “He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it.” Stark pointed at them. “He wants an audience.”

Steve watched him, and from his expression, it was clear he wasn’t sure where Stark was going with this. “Right. I caught his act in Stuttgard.”

“That was just previews. This is opening night.” He smirked. “Loki’s a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades,” he started to list the things off on his fingers, “he wants a monument built to the sky with his name plastered…” He trailed off and his mouth hung open. Steve gave him a look to prompt him to finish his thought, but instead he jumped down between Steve and Bucky and ran for the door as he said, “Son of a bitch!”

Steve and Bucky glanced at each other and then ran after him. “I think he’s figured out where we need to go!” Bucky said to Steve as they followed Stark.

“My tower!” Stark yelled back. “He’s going to use my tower, that asshole!”

“Tower?” Bucky asked.

“You mean Stark Tower?” Steve asked.

“Yes! Remember what I said before? It’s powered by an arc reactor. Perfect power source for Loki to create another portal. And it’s right smack in the middle of Manhattan. And it belongs to me!” He stopped in front of his armory, where the severely dinged up pieces of his Iron Man armor were waiting. “Go get Natasha and Barton. I’ll meet you guys in the hangar.”

Steve nodded and headed back for the medical bay. Bucky followed as Stark pulled out various tools and tried to get his armor operational again. They found the hospital room where Barton had been taken after the battle.

Steve stopped in the doorway and said to Romanoff, who appeared to be the only one there, “Time to go.”

“Go where?” she asked.

“I’ll tell you on the way. We’re going to need to take one of the quinjets.”

“Then you’re going to want me.” They looked over at the door to the adjoining bathroom. Barton stood there drying his hands on a towel. “I can fly a quinjet.”

“So can I,” Bucky said.

“No offense, but a lot of changes have been made since you stole a quinjet four years ago.” Barton stared them down. “And if you’re going after Loki, then I’m coming with you.”

Steve looked over at Natasha. She nodded once in assurance. Bucky remembered their conversation about not trusting each other. But still, she trusted this guy, even after he’d been brainwashed. Her analysis was good enough for Steve, though. He looked back at Barton. “Got a suit?”

Barton nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then suit up.”

Barton and Romanoff nodded. Steve and Bucky left them to retrieve their own uniforms. This time, Bucky was going to make sure he was sufficiently prepared for the fight and not caught off guard. He strapped an automatic to his back, hoisted a rifle onto his left shoulder, stashed several throwing knives and hunting knives on his person, and clipped a handgun to either leg with as many spare clips as he could carry. Last, he grabbed a grenade launcher. It was bulky, but if they really had to fight an alien army, it would be useful. It would only be good for a few shots before he would have to discard it, but it would be worth it. They had no idea how strong these aliens were, after all. And even if it was only Loki, he would love to shoot a grenade where the sun don’t shine.

“You taking this or is he?” Steve asked as he pulled his helmet onto his head. He strapped his shield to his back and grabbed a rifle as well. He only took the one. Even after everything, he still didn’t like guns. But he understood the necessity.

“We’ll see,” Bucky said. He checked the bandage under his uniform. The bleeding had at least stopped. Hopefully, it wouldn’t slow him down too much. “For now, it’s me.”

Steve turned to look at him. “Don’t fall off anything this time.”

“Ha,” Bucky said dryly.

“Bucky,” Steve said. He made sure his comm was off, then he reached out and threaded his fingers through Bucky’s hair and pulled him close. “I love you,” he said quietly.

“Don’t act like we’re going to our deaths, Rogers,” Bucky said with half a smirk. Then he reached up and wrapped his hand around the back of Steve’s neck. “Love you too, Steve.” They moved forward at the same time and kissed sweetly, softly, with no passion or urgency behind it. When they pulled back, Bucky rested his forehead against Steve’s. After a moment, he knocked his knuckles against the side of Steve’s helmet. “Come on. Time to finish the mission.”

They met Romanoff and Barton in the hangar.The place was mostly a mess from Thor and the Hulk’s fight, neither of whom were left to see the destruction. Compared to Bucky, their artillery was minimal. Black Widow had two handguns, and extra clips, and a contraption on either wrist that the Winter Soldier described as her “widow’s bite.” Hawkeye had his bow and what looked like a specially designed quiver of arrows. He carried no guns, though.

_It is their own responsibility to stay alive._

“So where are we going, Captain America?” Barton asked. He sounded out the name, like he was amused by it.

“Stark Tower,” Steve said. “Loki is going to use the arc reactor to power the Tesseract and create another wormhole, according to Tony.”

“Steve’s right,” Stark said as he found them. Bucky couldn’t understand why they were suddenly on a first name basis. Maybe the life-or-death situation had something to do with it. Stark had managed to get his Iron Man armor functioning, barely. It was very badly damaged from his time in the turbines, but at least it could fly. He stopped in front of the four of them, holding his helmet in his hands. “I’m going to go on ahead and see if I can shut down power in the tower and or destroy the Tesseract before Loki has a chance to use it.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” Steve asked.

“Then Plan B is to get into the Tower so I can get to my Mark 7 armor.”

“Past Loki?”

Stark looked like he tried to shrug, but it didn’t come off right with the armor. “The guy likes to talk, if case you haven’t noticed.” Bucky glanced at Romanoff, but she looked stoic as ever. “So I just have to keep him talking.”

“Right,” Steve said. “Well, we’re backup.”

“Just don’t take too long.” Stark opened up the helmet and put it on his head. The whole armor lit up and he hovered for a bit, making sure he could before he took off for the opening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains one of my favorite scenes from this story.


	6. Chapter 6

The four of them—Bucky, Steve, Romanoff, and Barton—walked up the ramp of an undamaged quinjet, which unfortunately had one small tech in it. He straightened up when he saw them and said, “You guys aren’t authorized to be here.”

Steve cut him off by saying, “Son, just don’t.” He walked around the young man, and Bucky followed. The guy shrunk under Bucky’s gaze, and then gave up and started to walk out.

Barton clapped him on the shoulder as he went. “Just tell them I hit you,” he joked, which made Romanoff roll her eyes. He then settled in the pilot’s seat and Romanoff took co-pilot. When his joke didn’t get a response, he glanced back at the two super soldier as the hatch closed. “Come on. Anybody? Independence Day?” He pulled the headset on, and pushed the quinjet forward before taking off. They could just barely still see the streak of light that was the Iron Man armor. “You’ve been back for four years and you haven’t seen a movie called Independence Day, Captain _America_?” Barton asked in shock.

“We’ve been busy,” Steve said.

“Taking down Hydra,” Bucky added on.

“Have you caught up on any pop culture since you were frozen?” Barton asked. “You guys have got to have pretty boring lives.”

“Found out how the war… World War II ended,” Steve said lamely.

“Well, that’s something,” Barton said. They could make out the skyline of Manhattan.

“We should focus on this war we’re potentially getting ourselves in,” Bucky said.

“Probably a good idea,” Barton agreed. He pushed the quinjet as fast at it could go. Through the window, they could see a shock of blue electricity streak into the sky and blossom into what could only be another portal.

Bucky glanced over at Steve and saw his grim expression. “Is that what it looked like on the Valkyrie?”

“Yeah…” Steve said quietly. “But this is much, much bigger.”

When they actually came over the city, they could see aliens streaming out of the portal in droves, and a flash of gold and red chasing them. “Stark, we’re here,” Romanoff said into her comm.

Stark’s voice came over their own comm, “What, did you stop for drive-thru?” He sounded out of breath. “Swing up Park. I’m going to lay them out for you.”

Barton followed his instructions and turned down the street. They saw Iron Man pass, and then Romanoff laid on the machine gun, and actually managed to take out several Chitauri. Barton pulled the quinjet around, and then they suddenly had a clear view of Loki and Thor fighting on the balcony of Stark Tower. “Nat,” Barton said quickly.

“I see them,” she said. She pulled the trigger for the machine gun again, but bullets didn’t seem to have much of an effect on Loki. From this close of a range, Barton had no chance to maneuver the quinjet out of the way of the blast from Loki’s sceptor that followed.

The quinjet hovered briefly before the whole thing started to spin out of control and plummet. Barton managed to turn the fall into a controlled crash, and they skidded to a stop in the street. Steve and Bucky shook themselves off and got out, with Barton and Romanoff close behind.

“We need to get back up there,” Steve said as he looked up at the Tower.

Bucky loaded a grenade into his grenade launcher and was prepared to start trying to kill as many aliens as possible. However, they barely got a few steps before a deep, guttural roar reverberated down the street. All four looked up to see something even worse than the individual Chitauri. It was a massive, armor covered, flying primordial sea monster...thing.

“Stark, you seeing this?” Steve asked as he looked up and watched the thing pass over head.

“Seeing,” Stark’s voice said. “Still working on believing.” More Chitauri shot off the side of the Leviathan and landed in and on the office buildings surrounding them. “Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?”

“Banner?” Steve seemed genuinely surprised. He glanced at Bucky, and Bucky shrugged. As far as he was concerned, Banner was down and out. Or at least, he would never come here, to the middle of this battle zone.

“Just keep me posted,” Stark signed off.

They were on the low ground standing on the Viaduct, and several Chitauri had noticed them and were already making their way over. At the same time Romanoff raised her gun and took out one of the aliens to their left, Bucky shot the grenade launcher to their right. It crashed into a car between several Chitauri and sent the whole mass of them up in flames. Bucky discarded the shell and loaded another grenade.

He raised the grenade launcher to shoot again, but several low-flying Chitauri passed overhead and lit up the street below them, which was still filled with civilians. They ducked from the blasts, and Steve looked over the hood of a car. “Loki,” he said darkly. “They’re fish in a barrel down there.”

Another round of Chitauri made their way down the Viaduct toward them, so Romanoff raised both guns and shot at them. Bucky shot out another grenade. That was two down. He only had five. So he had to make them count. He turned to see Steve looking at him, but then Romanoff caught both of their attentions.

“We’ve got this.” She looked at Steve. “It’s good. Go.” She sounded sincere, and she nodded down to the civilians and then looked between Bucky and Steve.

“I’m going to stay here. You protect the civilians,” Bucky said as he loaded another grenade. “Go be a hero.” He smirked lightly.

Steve blinked in surprise and then turned to Barton. “What about you? Do you think you can hold them off?”

“Captain,” Barton smirked back at them as he adjusted for a shot, “it would be my genuine pleasure.” He stood swiftly, and in the same motion pulled an arrow and fired it, dropping a Chitauri like a sack of rocks.

Steve nodded and jumped over the side of the bridge to go help the people down on the street. Bucky glanced over the edge and watched Steve just miss an explosion before he had to turn his attention back to his own enemies.

“There are civilians trapped in that bus,” Barton informed them.

“I’ll cover you,” Bucky said. Whatever he thought of SHIELD, or Romanoff, or the fact that Barton was recently mind controlled by their enemy, they were in this fight together. He cleared the Chitauri with another grenade, which gave Barton an opening to run to the bus and start getting people out. While Barton helped the civilians, Bucky and Romanoff stayed away and focused on the aliens.

_She doesn’t like people either._

“Now? You’re going to talk to me about something like that now?” He shot off another grenade.

_On your left._

Bucky spun and slipped a knife out. He stabbed up and caught the Chitauri who had tried to sneak up on him in the throat. When the creature fell, he could see Romanoff was giving him a strange look. It was slightly curious, and slightly calculating, but not at all confused. However she couldn’t linger because there were always more coming. She ducked behind a car for cover so she could keep shooting, while Bucky went at another Chitauri with his knife in one hand. He shot off another grenade, and then used the gun itself to take out another Chitauri by smacking him hard enough on the side of the head to dislocate his jaw and send it flying. So much for that. He dropped the grenade launcher on the ground and swung his rifle off his shoulder.

He ducked behind a car across the Viaduct from Romanoff and Barton, and took aim at more aliens. Seriously, how could these things keep coming? He glanced up at the hole in the sky and saw that indeed, yes, more alien soldiers were still streaming down from outer space.

Even the arsenal strapped to his body started to feel weak when he took into account just how long it would take to defeat the aliens who were already in New York. He got off a few more shots, and killed a few more aliens, but it felt infinite. The familiar clang of Steve’s shield sounded behind him, and he turned to see Steve had rejoined their fight. The rifle he had carried into battle was already gone, either used up or lost.

A sudden blast of lightning from the sky lit up the rest of the Chitauri around them and turned them to cinders. A moment later, Thor landed, but he stumbled and caught himself against a car. He pushed himself up and met Steve in the middle of the bridge.

“What’s the story upstairs?” Steve asked as he adjusted his shield on his arm. Bucky walked over to stand next to him while Barton scrounged for usable arrows and Romanoff reloaded her handguns.

“The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable,” Thor said.

“Thor’s right,” Stark’s voice said from their comms. “We’ve got to deal with these guys.”

Romanoff looked at the men around her, and then asked honestly, “How do we do this?”

“As a team.” Steve looked at Bucky, and he was reminded of what Fury had said to them when he had given them this mission. They really did work better in a team. These people were about as different from the Howling Commandos as it was possible to be, but they could make it work. They had to.

“I have unfinished business with Loki,” Thor said in response. He already looked like a mess from one round with his brother.

“Yeah?” Barton said darkly from behind him as he checked arrowheads. “Get in line.”

“Save it,” Steve commanded. He, by default, took the authoritative role. And he was the best one for it. “Loki’s gonna keep this fight focused on us. And that’s what we need. Without him, these things could run wild.” He glanced up at Stark Tower again. “We’ve got Stark up top. He’s going to need us to…” he trailed off as they heard the lower rumble of an approaching motorcycle.

Banner stopped a few feet away from him. He wore baggy clothes and seemed to have found a motorcycle somewhere. Everyone looked at him in surprise. He got off the motorcycle and met them on the bridge. He stopped in front of them and glanced around at all the destruction. “Well, this all seems horrible.”

Bucky smirked because Banner had managed to keep his wry sense of humor.

“I’ve seen worse,” Romanoff said from off to the side.

Banner looked at her for a moment and then said, “Sorry.”

“No,” she said quickly. “We could use a little worse.”

Steve smiled. “Stark?” he said into his comm. “We’ve got him.”

“Banner?” Stark’s voice asked.

“Just like you said.”

“Then tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.” Stark’s comm cut out, and he appeared around the corner of a building, closely followed by the Leviathan. The thing barrelled down the street, flying so low it knocked over cars as it came towards them.

Banner glanced at the five of them, and then turned and started walking towards the thing. “Dr. Banner,” Steve said quickly. “Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.”

Banner glanced back again and smirked. “That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry.” No sooner had he said that than he swelled and started to turn green. When he turned back to the Leviathan, he was fully the Hulk. And the first thing the Hulk did was punch the Leviathan in the face hard enough to cave in its armor.

The whole creature flipped and started to fall towards them, but Iron Man shot a rocket at a fleshy spot, which made the whole thing explode. Each of them took cover amongst the wreckage from their earlier fights. They stood up and looked up at the Chitauri on the building around them as they screamed and howled. Stark landed next to them and the Hulk roared back. Bucky smirked up at him and then went about checking how many shots he had left in his rifle.

“Guys,” Romanoff’s voice got their attention again. They all turned to see even more Leviathans and Chitauri soldiers flying out of the portal.

“Call it, Captain,” Stark said. Bucky turned and looked at him in surprise. Even Stark was willing to take orders from Steve.

“Alright, listen up.” Steve tore his eyes away from the portal and looked at, for better or worse, his team. “Until we can close that portal up there, we’re going to focus on containment. Barton,” he turned to the archer, “I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you’ve got the perimeter.” He looked at Iron Man. “Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or turn it to ash,” he said seriously.

Barton nodded and looked at Iron Man as well. “Wanna give me a lift?”

“Right,” Stark said. He grabbed the back of Barton’s uniform. “Better clench up, Legolas,” he said as he lifted them into the sky.

When they were gone, Steve turned to the god of thunder. “Thor, you’ve got to try to bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You’ve got the lightning. Light the bastards up.”

Thor nodded and took off. Bucky stepped up to Steve’s side. “Wow, cussing. You must be serious.”

Steve spared him half a smile, then looked at Romanoff as well. “The three of us, we stay here on the ground. Keep the fighting here.”

He turned to the last member of their team, who was busy glaring up at the Chitauri on the buildings and huffing and puffing. “And Hulk,” Steve said, which immediately got his attention. Rather than back down, intimidated, Steve raised his hand and pointed at the Chitauri with a smirk on his face. “Smash.”

The Hulk grinned in response and leapt off the ground towards the nearest building. The Chitauri up there didn’t stand a chance. Rubble rained down on the street from where the Hulk collided with the building. “Well, that should keep them occupied,” Bucky said.

“Ready for this?” Steve asked as he raised his shield. Now that the others were gone, the Chitauri were converging on them again.

“I’m always ready.” Bucky aimed and took out an alien with his rifle.

“If you two are done flirting, we’ve got an alien army to beat,” Romanoff said, before she took off into the fray.

Steve smiled at him. “You heard the woman,” he said before he headed out into the fight himself.

Once Steve was out of earshot, Bucky said, “Him, however, he’s our responsibility to keep alive.”

_Understood._

“Good.” Bucky took out another Chitauri. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!
> 
> For those of you keeping track of the fact that I've been putting up chapters every two days, I'm sorry this one was late. Work has been getting crazy...


	7. Chapter 7

Even with the addition of the Hulk and Thor, and with direction from Steve, their chances weren’t looking good. Just the fighting down on the street with the three of them seemed like a futile effort. And the enemies slowly started separating them as they had to spread out to cover a larger area.

Bucky tossed the rifle to the side as he went through his last round. He grabbed the automatic off his back and sliced an alien’s legs out from under him before putting a bullet between his eyes. He could feel the Winter Soldier pushing him from under the surface, making his reflexes faster. He kicked the last Chitauri in the wave off the bridge and turned to see Romanoff and Steve talking.

He walked over just as she said, “I’ve got a ride.” She walked across the bridge from him and then turned back to face him. “I could use a boost, though.”

Steve looked up at the gliders flying overhead and raised his shield. “You sure about this?”

“Yeah,” she said, her eyes flicking between the gliders and Steve. “It’s gonna be fun.” She took a running start just as the last few gliders started to fly by, and jumped off the hood of a car onto Steve’s shield. He pushed her up and she spun and caught the edge of the last glider, which pulled up into the air and quickly out of their sight.

Bucky ran over to Steve so he could see her make it onto the glider and kill its driver. He turned to look at Steve at the same time Steve turned to look at him. “Looks like it’s just you and me now.”

“It’s always been just you and me,” Bucky said. “Though we’re fighting faceless aliens instead of faceless Hydra goons.” He shot down a row of Chitauri that came towards them and Steve threw his shield. Soon Bucky was going to be down to his handguns. The automatic was almost out. He jumped up onto a car and felt the already compromised frame crunch under his boots. He used the height to jump down on two aliens, using his gun as a blunt weapon, with his knife in his other hand.

He turned and saw Steve jump down off the bridge again while using his shield as a battering ram to run through several soldiers. But Bucky couldn’t spare the time to watch Steve. He had to shoot down his own enemies. Now that he was the only one left on the bridge, they were able to get much closer than before. He was equal parts using the automatic and his knife. When he finally cleared the immediate threats, which also got him off the bridge in the process, he quickly turned around and tried to locate Steve. He was nowhere in sight.

Only the fact that everyone else would hear them if he got on the comms kept Bucky from frantically checking his status. Now that Romanoff was up in the air somewhere, they were the only ones on the ground. So he could have been anywhere.

“Captain,” Barton’s voice came over the comms, “the bank on 42nd past Maddison. They’ve cornered a lot of civilians in there.”

“I’m on it,” Steve’s voice said back. He sounded a bit winded, but not in pain, or like he had been injured.

Bucky sighed in relief and then went back to focusing on the mission at hand. He didn’t like not being able to cover Steve’s back. While there had been missions that forced them to be in separate places, this was on a completely different scale.

_Captain America can take care of himself._

“Of course I know that!” Bucky didn’t mean to yell, but it wasn’t like anyone was around to hear him talk to himself. He threw one of his knives and it spun so fast it made a blurry circle of a silver before it landed in one Chitauri’s eye socket hard enough for the tip to scrape the back of its skull.

_If you do not focus, I will take over._

“I can handle this!” But Bucky knew he wouldn’t be able to do it forever. The Winter Soldier always did have more stamina than him. There was no logical explanation for this. Since it was all the same body, it should have tired at the same rate, no matter who was using it. There had to be some pretty strong mental will power, with a dash of super soldier serum, that made things work the way they did. And with the attack earlier that day plus this battle, he knew he was close to his limit.

“Hey, Barnes,” Barton’s voice crackled over his comm. Steve wasn’t the only one winded. Whatever Hawkeye was doing up there, he wasn’t just sitting and watching. “You’ve got incoming around the corner. Hope you have more of those grenades.”

Bucky used the last round in the automatic. He rammed the end into one Chitauri’s chest, and then whipped it out and used it as a club to catch another one in the neck. The thing was busted from the movement, but it wasn’t like he was going to find more bullets. “No such luck,” he grunted in response. He threw the automatic to catch another Chitauri off guard, and pulled his hand guns out. He ducked down behind the wreckage of an SUV (seriously, who would drive an SUV in New York City?) and glanced around the corner of the building it was wedged up against. Sure enough, at least fifteen Chitauri were making their way over to him.

“Then I’m your new best friend,” Barton said. “Turns out I have two more exploding arrowheads.”

Bucky glanced up. He could see the building where Barton was supposedly stationed, but he couldn’t find him. “Can you make that shot?”

“Do you know who you’re talking to?” Barton sounded incredibly amused by the question. “I thought you were supposed to be some big-time sniper assassin? Even you would be able to make this shot.”

“I used real guns with real bullets.” Bucky checked his ammo. “Not trick arrows.”

“Just watch this.”

Bucky could barely make out the flash of something whizzing by before the whole street went up in a fiery explosion, right in the center of the mob of Chitauri that had been making their way toward him. He threw up his arm to block the force of the blast. One small motion. That’s all it was, but it caused the shift.

“Sorry, gotta help Natasha.” Barton clicked off their shared comm.

The Winter Soldier straightened up and took out the few Chitauri that had survived the explosion with quick, efficient headshots.

_Damnit._

“You need my help.”

Bucky didn’t deny that. _Just don’t let them know you’re in control._ Tony Stark might already know about his split personality, but he didn’t want that to be general knowledge with SHIELD.

The Winter Soldier scanned the area for enemies, and then made his way to the source of the most noise on the next block. He slipped in among the shadows and was able to take out several aliens without them even noticing his presence. Bucky hadn’t realized he had automatically fallen back into his soldier mindset, whereas the Winter Soldier worked much more efficiently as an assassin.

He discarded both clips on his handguns and slammed in new ones without dropping them. Heavy fire was raining down from the sky, and as he darted around the columns of a bank, he saw Iron Man zoom into the mouth of one of the Leviathans, only for it to explode a moment later and send the red and gold suit flying across the street and out of the Winter Soldier’s view.

Bucky had no idea where the other, god, _Avengers_ were. He had wandered pretty far from the Viaduct, and with the street in ruins like it was, he couldn’t get his bearings of what street in Manhattan they were on. The Winter Soldier was unconcerned. He was not a team player, though he tolerated Steve. Bucky just hoped Steve was still alive somewhere out in that mess.

The Winter Soldier’s strategy of using stealth to sneak up on unsuspecting Chitauri and kill them made better use of the limited bullets they had left than Bucky’s plan of taking them all on with a full-frontal attack. Unfortunately, there were too many enemies. So, more often than not, the Winter Soldier had to retreat and try to hit them from a different angle. His strategy wasn’t going to last forever.

As he tried to retreat again, one Chitauri soldier managed to catch him with the energy spear they all seemed to carry as standard issue. At the last moment, the Winter Soldier took the brunt of the attack on his metal arm. The shock went through his whole body and he thought he even tasted sparks between his teeth. As he lifted his right arm to shoot the soldier before it could attack again, he could tell his wound had started bleeding under its bandage. The left arm felt like dead weight.

The Winter Soldier retreated quickly and managed to slide under a truck and come up running. He ducked through the shattered window of an office building and took shelter behind a large filing cabinet.

_Did the arm short out?_ Bucky asked in a panic. If they couldn’t use the arm, they were royally fucked.

The Winter Soldier holstered his handgun. In the retreat, he had lost the second one. He popped the panel on the wrist of the cybernetic arm and fiddled with the wires. Bucky watched in earnest. Over the past four years, the Winter Soldier had learned the arm inside and out, just in case something like this happened.

The Winter Soldier grit his teeth and then raised his head slightly to look around the office. He found what he needed in one of the mostly intact computer desks. Thankfully, one computer was still in functional order, so he was able to strip it for useful parts. With a few zaps, he rebooted the arm and twisted it completely around once at the shoulder joint. The movement was a bit shaky, but it would have to do.

“No time for a full recalibration. Will have to do that after the battle.”

_Assuming we survive that long._

The Winter Soldier only grunted in reply. He changed out the clip in his last handgun as he glanced out at the street. It was filled with Chitauri soldiers, even though none of them seemed to have located his hiding spot.

_Well, back into the fray,_ Bucky thought without enthusiasm.

The Winter Soldier leaned around the desk and shot two Chitauri quickly, before darting to another hiding spot closer to the opening in the wall. He would literally kill for a sniper rifle right then.

“I can close it!” Romanoff’s breathless voice came over the open comm. “Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down.”

“Do it!” Steve’s voice yelled back before anyone else could respond. Maybe there wasn’t anybody else. Who knew where Thor and the Hulk were, and they weren’t on comms anyway. He hadn’t heard from Barton in a little while, and the last time he saw Iron Man, he had been ricocheting off buildings.

Though apparently he was still alive. “No, wait!” Stark’s voice said.

“Stark, these things are still coming!” Steve responded.

Bucky could attest to that. The Winter Soldier stayed quiet, but he moved through the soldiers, trying to hit as many at long range as possible with the handgun, and then using his nastiest hunting knife on the ones he got close to. When he got clear, he said into the comm, against Bucky’s specific earlier instructions, “We cannot even kill all the ones already on the ground.”

“I’ve got a nuke coming in, and it’s gonna blow in less than a minute,” Stark said to cut off their disagreement. “And I know just where to put it,” he said slowly.

The Winter Soldier ran out into the middle of the street, and he suddenly had a completely clear view of Stark Tower. Sure enough, there was a flash of light coming towards the city from over the water. It was joined by another flash of red and gold.

“Stark,” Steve’s voice said quietly, “you know that’s a one-way trip?”

Stark didn’t respond to that. But he didn’t need to. The question was rhetorical anyway. This was the wire. This was Stark lying down on it to save everyone else. This was Steve’s plane and Bucky’s train. This was the sacrifice they had thought Tony Stark was incapable of making.

The Winter Soldier watched both Stark and the missile barely make the turn towards the sky. He actually scraped the side of Stark Tower as he blew right by the Tesseract. In another half a second, both disappeared through the portal, saving the city from nuclear destruction. The Winter Soldier shifted and took out one last Chitauri who came towards him. It was his last bullet. He dropped the handgun and turned his eyes back up to the sky. If this didn’t worked, they were dead.

A burst of light leaked out of the portal, all orange and red and yellow. The nuke must have detonated and taken out whatever main base the Chitauri had come from. Sure enough, the few soldiers still around him collapsed. In the distance, he could see a Leviathan fall out of the sky and come down onto a building, clearly dead.

Bucky started to run towards Stark Tower, as he was only a block of two away. The enemy was dead, but the portal was still open. He could tell everyone was waiting to see if Stark would make it back. But the blinding light was coming closer. He came around the wreckage of a few crashed gliders and he saw Steve and Thor in the distance, standing at the other end of the Viaduct and watching the sky.

“Close it,” he heard Steve say on the comm with resignation.

There was a crackle of light at the top of Stark Tower, and then the beam of energy that had been supporting the portal disappeared, and the whole thing folded in on itself. Just before it closed, however, a small figure fell through the opening. The red and gold meant it had to be Iron Man, but he was falling too fast to land. At the last second, something large and green jumped from the side of a building and caught Stark. He caught another building, tearing it up as he slid down, until he eventually crashed onto the middle of the Viaduct about twenty feet from Steve and Thor.

They rushed over from their end. Bucky was coming from much farther away, but he ran to meet them. Even from that distance, he could see Hulk toss Stark onto the ground on his back. Both Steve and Thor leaned over him. Thor ripped off the faceplate of his helmet, and Steve leaned his ear over his face, probably to check if he was breathing. As Bucky came closer, he slowed down and stayed a good ten feet away from them. He only watched as Steve put his hand over the chest plate of the Iron Man armor, and let it linger there for a second, before pulling his hand back and resting his arm on his knee. He lowered his head in defeat. From their posture, it was clear Tony Stark was dead.

That was, until Hulk roared down at him, which apparently shocked Stark right out of the grave. He jumped, but couldn’t move much with the armor holding him down.

“What the hell?” Stark whispered as he looked at the three people standing over him.

Bucky wandered closer and lingered just on the periphery of the circle they formed around Stark. For some reason, it felt like he was intruding on a moment. Steve hadn’t even noticed him at all.

“What just happened?” Stark continued. “Please tell me no one kissed me.”

Steve was still panting hard. He was completely covered in grime, and at some point during the battle he must have lost his helmet, because his head was bare. But when he smiled down at Stark in relief, it lit up his whole face. God, Bucky thought, he was gorgeous.

“We won,” Steve said. That was when he looked up and saw Bucky. He caught his eye and his smile widened, just for him.

Stark smiled in relief and dropped his head. “Alright. Yay,” he said, completely exhausted. He lifted one fist. “Alright. Good job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day.” He looked up at them again. “Have you ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here.”

Steve almost laughed. He shook his head and leaned heavily on his arm.

“I don’t know what it is, but I want to try it.”

Even though Thor was smiling, he said, “We’re not finished yet.” Both Steve and Bucky looked at him.

Stark looked between them, and then said, “And then shawarma after?”

Steve did laugh then. “Sure thing, Tony.”

Something about that irked Bucky, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Instead, he walked over and held out his right arm, despite the pain from his wound, and helped pull Steve up.

Steve winced heavily, and wrapped his other arm around his abdomen as he rose to his feet. He leaned into Bucky for half a second before straightening up.

“You’re injured,” Bucky said. The wound on his gut was nasty, and based on the discoloration he could see, Steve must have at least bruised a couple ribs.

“I’ll live,” Steve said. He smiled tiredly and put his other hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “You?”

“Dinged up, but nothing major. Arm needs recalibration.”

Steve nodded, and they watched Thor help Stark up. Stark pulled the rest of his helmet off, since it was useless without the face plate. It seemed that at least he could walk in it. So they went to finish the mission. They found Hawkeye in the office building across the street from where he had been stationed. And Romanoff and Dr. Selvig met them at the top of Stark Tower, which was where they found the Tesseract, and captured Loki. The SHIELD detail arrived to take both into custody.

As they stood watching them, the Winter Soldier’s voice quietly said, _Mission complete._

Bucky nodded in agreement. Hulk was in the process of turning back into Banner, and he looked pretty shaken up by the experience. After they found him some clothes to wear, and Stark managed to get out of his battle-worn Iron Man armor, he actually managed to convince them all to find that Shawarma place. Even more stunning, though half their restaurant was destroyed, they let the Avengers get food and sit there and eat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ruling today, which is absolutely incredible, made me think of something. It is amazing that I can sit here and write gay fanfiction without any kind of fear of repercussions. I may be writing this anonymously, but even still. Only 120 years ago, Oscar Wilde was sent to prison for writing something considered "indecent." We've still got a long way to go before true equality, but look how far we've come. Love wins.
> 
> Now I've forever dated this chapter note.
> 
> As for the chapter itself, I had so much fun writing the battle! Only the epilogue left.


	8. Chapter 8

SHIELD insisted they all be hospitalized for at least a day, even Thor. Most of his injuries had already healed, since he was a god. Romanoff and Barton only had minor injuries. Steve’s ribs were cracked, and he hissed loudly while the doctor wrapped bandages around his bare torso. Stark got a full medical check, since he had legally been dead for thirty seconds. Bucky let them treat his flesh injuries, but he absolutely would not let them touch his metal arm, at the Winter Soldier’s insistence. The less SHIELD knew about how it worked, the better.

The next morning, SHIELD let them leave if they wanted to. Stark immediately took off to find Pepper Potts. Apparently he had somewhere else to stay aside from his nearly demolished Tower. Romanoff and Barton stayed at SHIELD, as well as Banner, since he had nowhere else to go. Thor chose to guard Loki. Considering how his last capture went, Thor wanted to make sure Loki never left his sight.

Bucky and Steve chose to go home, to their apartment in Brooklyn. As soon as they were through the door, tired and injured as they were, Bucky pushed Steve up against the wall, mindful not to put pressure on his ribs, and kissed him hard. Steve kissed him back just as eagerly, tangling his fingers in his long hair. They couldn’t do much more than rut up against each other since both were too exhausted and injured. Though it wasn’t about having sex. It was about proving they had survived.

They spent the next eighteen hours in bed. About fifteen of those hours were actually spent sleeping. Sometimes, they lay awake, curled in each other’s arms, kissing slowly, languidly. Once, when Steve was fast asleep, but Bucky was awake, he slipped out of the bed to see to his arm.

The Winter Soldier did not comment on Bucky’s list of priorities post-battle. Perhaps it was because he knew getting his injuries treated, sleep, and physical intimacy with Steve were all equal parts important to Bucky. Regardless, he effortlessly took control, and Bucky receded to bare consciousness while the Winter Soldier gathered his tools and fixed up the arm.

The next morning, Stark called them and told them to meet him in Central Park. Bucky’s injuries were almost completely healed by then, and his arm was back in working order. While the wound on Steve’s stomach had at least closed and was starting to scar over, it was clear by the way he moved that his ribs were still bruised. But he shook off Bucky’s concern and insisted they take the bikes there. At some point, Steve had found a motorcycle that reminded him of his old one from the war. So of course he made Bucky get one too. Bucky had to admit, he liked driving the bike.

They met the other Avengers in the park, along with SHIELD, who were guarding Loki, and Dr. Selvig. Loki was decked out in so much bondage gear that it even made Bucky laugh. They stood off to the side as Banner handed the Tesseract off to Thor. Bucky glanced sideways at Steve and saw his expression was hard as he watched the exchange. He clenched his jaw and closed his hand into a fist. Bucky looked back at the Tesseract. Yeah, he could understand that feeling. Good riddance.

After Thor and his psychotic little brother disappeared into a rainbow burst of light, Bucky and Steve walked over to Stark, who was wearing a snazzy light-colored suit today. He had brought a shiny red sports car to the meet up. Steve smiled and held out his hand to shake with Stark.

“Good job, Tony,” Steve said. Again, Bucky felt irked for some reason.

“Thanks, Cap.” Stark smiled,and it wasn’t even his normal smirk. It was an honest smile. “So what’s next?” He nodded toward Romanoff and Barton, who were talking to Dr. Banner. “Sticking with SHIELD?”

Steve looked over. “I don’t know.” He looked at Bucky.

Bucky shrugged and stuck his hands in his jacket pockets. He was wearing his gloves and baseball cap again, since they were out in public. “For now. Once Hydra is gone, then it’s a different story.”

“We made a good team,” Stark said. “Just keep that in mind.” His eyes were on Steve as he said this.

Steve smiled. “I will.”

“By the way.” Stark tore his eyes off Steve’s face and turned to look at Bucky. “If you ever need an upgrade on that arm, I can help.”

Bucky raised an eyebrow. “You’re actually volunteering to help?”

“That tech is amazing. I want to get my hands on it.” Stark clearly hadn’t meant his comment to sound lewd, but it came out that way, anyway.

Bucky rolled his eyes and Steve laughed. “Okay. If you say so.”

_Not a possibility at all._

“Oh, shut up,” Bucky sighed.

“What?” Stark asked.

“Not you,” Bucky said quickly as he realized he had said that out loud.

“Mr. Hyde doesn’t like the idea?” Stark smirked in amusement.

“Do not call—” Bucky started to say.

“What exactly could you improve on this arm?” the Winter Soldier asked. He crossed his arms and straightened up, using his extra height to glare down at Stark. “I already know exactly how it works and how to keep it maintained.”

Stark looked at him in surprise. “You’re… the Winter Soldier, I take it?” He glanced at Steve.

Steve nodded. “This happens from time to time.” He looked at the Winter Soldier. “Back down. Where’s Bucky?”

“He’s still here,” the Winter Soldier had.

_Of course I am! What the hell?_

The Winter Soldier ignored him. He turned his attention back to Stark. “How could you upgrade the arm?”

Stark titled his head slightly as he seemed to study him. “Well, for starters, the whole thing looks way too heavy. When was the last time it was completely upgraded? The Cold War? I can make it lighter and more flexible. I mean, you have seen my suits, haven’t you? That’s some pretty sweet tech. Why carry around an antique piece if you don’t have to? It’s just going to slow you down.”

Even though the Winter Soldier’s expression gave nothing away, Bucky could feel how impressed he was just at that idea. Now that he thought about it, it was true the arm weighed a ton. It was just something they had worked into their fighting style. Bucky took the moment to wrestle the Winter Soldier back down.

He sighed and pulled off his baseball cap so he could push his hair back out of his face, before straightening the cap back on his head. “Sorry about that.” Neither Steve nor Stark seemed particularly fazed by his slip. “I’ll think about it.” He looked at Stark, and hesitated for only a moment before he held out his hand like Steve had done. “It is a good offer.”

Stark took his hand and shook it. He didn’t seem at all troubled about Bucky’s split personality, despite what he had said on the helicarrier. If anything, he seemed amused. “Well, you know where to find me.”

“Thanks, Tony,” Steve said.

“All things considered,” they heard Dr. Banner say, “I think I’m more Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

Bucky turned and looked at him in surprise as he set a bag in the back seat of Tony’s sports car. “You heard that? Wait, how could you possibly have noticed…”

“You talk to yourself. Or, not yourself, I suppose,” Banner mused.

Steve and Bucky exchanged glances. “You don’t think it’s…” Bucky started to say.

“I don’t really have a right to judge since my Mr. Hyde rampages around.” Banner smiled just a bit. “And from what I can tell, you use this to your advantage. And you’re good at that.”

Bucky looked at him for a moment. “Thanks…”

Steve nodded to Dr. Banner’s bag and then at Stark. “Going with him?”

“Yeah,” Banner said. “Think I’ve been hiding away too long. See what good I can do here.” He looked at them. “And you? Back to hunting Hydra?” He looked at Bucky.

Bucky smirked. “Probably.” He glanced at Steve, who smiled at him in turn.

“But call us if you need anything,” he said. He inclined his head. “Tony, Bruce.”

Stark waved as they turned away and headed back to their bikes. The SHIELD detail had already packed up and was heading back to the New York base. Stark’s red car lit off behind them. Bucky glanced over his shoulder and paused with his hand on his bike seat.

“The Avengers,” he said.

Steve smiled. “No Howling Commandos. But he was right, we did make a good team.”

Bucky watched him. “So what are you thinking?”

“That’s not the last time we’ll work with them.”

Bucky chuckled and shook his head. “Just admit it. You liked having a team again.”

“It’s more effective than just the two of us.” He touched Bucky’s right arm gently.

Bucky looked up at him. “And in the mean time?”

Steve smirked. “Like you two said. Back to hunting Hydra.”

Bucky smirked and cracked his knuckles. “Yes, sir, Captain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it! There's the end. I hope you all enjoyed it. Even though this fic caused me a lot of frustration and rewrites, I enjoyed working on it.
> 
> Depending on what Civil War looks like, there miiiiiiiight be a threequel. (In other words, I read the actual Winter Soldier and Civil War comics, and have been trying to wrap my head around how they will possibly do that in the MCU.)
> 
> Happy Pride, everyone!


End file.
